


Coffee Shop Soundtrack

by TheCitizenErased



Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Chance Meetings, Charles Is a Big Dorkface, Charles Xavier has a Ph.D in Adorable, Cherik - Freeform, Erik Has Feelings, Erik is Crushing Harder than a 12-year Old Girl, First Meetings, Fluff, Homophobic Step-father, Honestly Charles What Are You Thinking, Idiots in Love, M/M, Protective Erik, Smitten Erik
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-28
Updated: 2015-06-23
Packaged: 2018-03-03 22:13:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 30,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2889824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCitizenErased/pseuds/TheCitizenErased
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik is an MI5 agent living in London, he leaves his flat to get away some peace and ends up in a cosy little coffee shop. Queue an adorable Charles Xavier and an unexpected turn in events that brings Charles and Erik together. As their relationship develops, they both endure some very eventful days.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Unexpected Occurrence

Erik Lehnsherr stood in his kitchen, gripping the top of the chair he had been sat on, his knuckles turning white. The root of all Erik’s current problems, otherwise known as his flat mate and work partner, was sat across from him. James was currently ranting about their target getting away in their previous mission and had been ranting all morning, leaving Erik about ready to punch him in the face. But then he’d just have to listen to more ranting, and would most likely gain a few bruises of his own. He thought that leaving the flat would be a much better idea and began to put on his coat, which was hanging on the back of the chair he was clutching. “Where do you think you’re going?” James muttered, now even more frustrated. “Out”, was Erik’s only response, as he was heading towards the door. “Erik, don’t you dare leave, we’ve got paperwork to do!” was all he heard as he slammed the door behind him. 

It was absolutely pouring down outside and the cars and people were creating a terrible racket, but it was still more peaceful than being in the flat. Erik quickly realised he actually had nowhere to go, but carried on walking anyway. He hadn’t lived in the area for very long as his job required him to move very suddenly and quite often, however, he’d recently received a different position in the agency, which meant he could operate within one place and could finally have a permanent residence. He didn’t know anybody in the area other than his partner, who he was currently and regrettably sharing a flat with. He did like his partner, he was very good at his job, but he was a hard man to live with sometimes. After walking for a few minutes, he saw the clock on the wall of a nearby shop, 12:14, no wonder he was feeling hungry. Around 5 minutes later he came across a cosy looking coffee shop that he had never noticed before, it wasn’t the sort of place Erik usually frequented, but it looked quiet and warm, so he went inside.

The bell above the door chimed when he entered, a young man appeared behind the counter to greet him. Erik looked around on his way to the counter, there were only two other people in the place who were chatting quietly in the corner. It was a nice looking building and had a Victorian feel to it, all of the chairs and tables were wooden, there were wooden beams going down the middle of the seating area, with great big chandeliers lighting the room. The walls were a burgundy colour and there was a large fireplace, although it looked like it was no longer in use.

Erik grabbed a sandwich off the shelf below the counter and looked towards the cashier to order and pay. The man behind the counter was younger than Erik by a couple of years and was shorter than Erik too, he had messy dark brown hair (but nice messy, Erik noted), and very blue eyes that were currently looking questioningly into Erik’s own. It was at that point that Erik realised that he was staring at the man and also that the man had asked him a question that he had not answered yet. “This and a cappuccino please” Erik mumbled, showing him the sandwich. He had no idea why he was acting so awkward, but blamed James for stressing him out so much that morning.

The man gave a hum of amusement, probably at Erik’s awkwardness, normally it would have annoyed Erik, which was not a smart thing to do, but it didn’t annoy him at all, in fact, Erik felt quite proud that he had made the man smile without even trying, and what a smile it was. “Are you eating in, Sir?” asked the man, he had a soft voice, with a thick London accent. “Yes” Erik answered quickly this time, probably a bit too fast though, judging by the grin on the man’s face. The grin made Erik smile too. The man turned away to make the cappuccino and Erik turned to see where he wanted to sit while grabbing a newspaper from the stand. There was a group of young people kicking a football around outside, as it was a reasonably quiet area, with very few cars or people around for them to annoy.

Erik turned to pick up his sandwich and drink when the man informed him that his cappuccino was ready, and he thanked him. He made his way to a seat near the window to watch the people kicking the football around outside. Around 10 minutes later he had finished his sandwich and began to sip his drink when he was sure that he felt eyes on him, something he had become very good at detecting, it was in his job description, he was an MI5 agent after all. He looked up just in time to catch the man at the counter look away and busy himself with cleaning the coffee machine, with a shy smile on his face. Erik hummed in amusement but was then distracted by somebody else entering the coffee shop, however it was just another employee that had come in for their shift. The blond woman seemed pleased to see the man at the counter and gave him a hug. They stood talking for a while, but Erik could not hear what they were saying, at some point in the conversation, Erik was sure that he saw the woman look directly at him and screw up her face and shake her head at something the smiley man had said. Erik hadn’t said or done anything though, so he thought he was probably misreading the situation.

A few minutes later, the man that had served him was slowly walking in his direction, no longer wearing his work uniform, he looked much more comfortable, and Erik thought (but would never admit out loud) that he looked rather adorable. He stopped at Erik’s table and smiled that smile again. “Hi, I couldn’t help but notice that you are soaking wet, the fireplace doesn’t work, but there’s a heater on over near the back of the shop”, Erik hadn’t even thought about the fact that he was wet, but he now thought that it would be a good idea to get dry, so that he didn’t have to go back to the flat any time soon to get changed. “Thank you… erm”, “Charles”, the man added for him with a huge smile, Erik was fairly sure that he had never seen anybody that smiled as much as Charles. “Thank you, Charles” Erik responded, as he stood to move closer to the heater. “No problem…” Charles replied. “Erik”, Erik added, just as Charles had, Charles smiled again at that.

Charles opened his mouth to say something else, when a football came hurtling through the window of the coffee shop, sending glass everywhere. The ball continued to soar through the air until it hit one of the huge chandeliers, causing it to crash to the floor, but not before it completely crushed the chair Erik had been sitting in not 5 seconds earlier.

The smiles on the two men’s faces were not there any longer, they were replaced by expressions of complete shock, Charles’s mouth was still open, and whatever he was going to say was forgotten. Erik was not a man that was surprised very often, he could usually sense when he was in danger, but not this time, this was completely accidental and unexpected. The people that had been playing football outside had all ran as soon as the window had shattered. There had been a scream from the back of the coffee shop and the two other customers had come over to see what was going on.

“I think you just saved my life” was all Erik managed to utter to Charles, who was still frozen in shock.


	2. A Different Perspective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things I should be doing right now: Uni work, house work...  
> Things I am actually doing right now: writing and uploading this...  
> I regret nothing!  
> Hope you all like it :)

Charles had been awoken by his alarm clock that morning at 7:15 am, his shift at the coffee shop started at 8, but he couldn’t complain, he was only working until half past 12. He had mastered getting showered, into his uniform and finishing his breakfast in just under half an hour, he could be quite lazy at the best of times and would do almost anything for an extra 15 minutes in bed. He looked out of the window of his flat while he was stood eating toast over the kitchen sink, to avoid getting crumbs everywhere, and saw massive rain clouds overhead, he decided to take his own clothes in a bag in case his uniform got wet. As he walked past the mirror on the way to the front door, he remembered that he hadn’t even brushed his hair, but couldn’t bring himself to be bothered or do anything about it. He dodged the multiple piles of books that covered most of the floor space in the hallway and left for work.

The walk to the coffee shop only took Charles 10 minutes and he arrived at the same time as Alex. Alex’s job for the day was taking stock in the store cupboards, so Charles knew that he would be working alone today, hopefully the shift would go fast and pass without incident. Just over 4 hours into the shift and nothing interesting at all had happened, the shop had been very busy at breakfast time but had quietened down now. Charles was planning out the rest of his day, when the bell above the door signalled a new customer had entered. He approached the till to take the order and saw a tall man enter. Charles couldn’t help but notice that the man had very nice muscles and what Charles could only describe as a perfect face. He approached Charles and when he reached him, Charles noticed that the handsome man was dripping wet.

Charles asked the man what he would like to drink, but the man didn’t seem to hear him, instead he seemed to be staring at Charles. Before Charles could ask the question again, thinking he may have said it too quietly, the man seemed to escape his daydream, held up the sandwich he was currently holding and mumbled something that Charles couldn’t hear or understand, but did hear the word ‘cappuccino’. Charles then asked the man if he was eating in, but not before he noticed that a perfect blush had appeared on the man’s face, maybe he was cold. The man answered very quickly this time with “yes” in a deep voice, this amused Charles for some reason, or maybe he was just happy that he got to look at the beautiful man for a while longer. He probably shouldn’t announce that fact though and busied himself with making the cappuccino, making sure he got it perfect.

To Charles’s delight, the man sat facing towards him, eating his sandwich while looking out of the window. He couldn’t help but look at the man, but then, to Charles’s complete embarrassment, the man suddenly looked in his direction. He was pretty sure he had not been caught but began to clean the coffee machine to look less suspicious. Fortunately, Emma chose that exact time to come in for her shift, she’d been off for 2 weeks and Charles hadn’t seen her in that time at all. She greeted him with a hug and asked how his day had been so far. “Well, it was pretty boring, until that man over there came in” Charles said with an amused look on his face. He liked being able to talk about this kind of thing with somebody. Emma was the only person that knew he liked men, he had accidently told her one time when he was rather drunk and was delighted to find out that she didn’t care at all, and that she hadn’t told anybody. Emma looked at the man and screwed her face up “men like that are a waste of time my dear, Charles, they get everything they want in life because they are attractive, but don’t really care about anything or anyone”, Emma whispered. Charles couldn’t argue that the man was attractive but was not so ready to jump to conclusions about him.

“Anyway, get yourself out of here, I’m sure you have more interesting things to be doing than staring at him”. Charles doubted that was true, but went to get changed and clock out. He shouted goodbye to Alex and went to head for the door. Before he got there though, he found himself looking at the man again and noticed that he was still soaking wet. His feet seemed to take him in the man’s direction before his brain had even comprehended what was happening. He reached the table and thankfully, his brain had caught up with the unfolding situation by then. “Hi, I couldn’t help but notice that you are soaking wet, the fireplace doesn’t work, but there’s a heater on over near the back of the shop”, Charles hoped that he wasn’t bothering the man, but the smile and thank you he got in reply told him that he had made the right decision. He was quick to tell the man his name and got another smile in return, although, ‘smile’ probably wasn’t the best way to describe it, it was more like a huge shark grin, but much more cute, Charles thought. “No problem”, Charles replied and to his delight, the man informed him that he was called Erik, while he stood from his seat. This was going very well, Charles thought.

Charles opened his mouth to tell the man that he liked the name Erik, he had no idea why though. As he opened his mouth, an ear shattering noise filled the room and the glass of the window violently flew towards them. The chandelier fell from the ceiling and crushed the chair that Erik had been sat on. He heard Erik mutter “I think you just saved my life”, in a strange tone of voice. However, the only thing Charles could concentrate on was the searing pain in his hand. 

It was at that point that Erik seemed to come out of his shocked daze and read the new expression of pain on Charles’s face. He got over the shock he previously felt and to his complete horror, noticed that blood was pouring from the younger man’s hand. The woman that Charles had been talking to earlier had noticed the blood too, but Erik beat her to the man and inspected the damage. A shard of glass had pierced his palm, it wasn’t a major injury, but he could tell from the expression on Charles’s face that it was very painful.

That was when all of Erik’s medical training kicked in. The woman, Emma, he could see from her name badge, was trying to push Erik out of the way, the problem was though, that Erik was holding Charles’s arm by the wrist to stop the bleeding. Emma’s shove caused Erik to move the glass in Charles’s hand and Charles let out the worst noise Erik had ever heard in his life. He shoved Emma back with his other arm, not to hurt her and not out of anger, simply to avoid Charles getting hurt any more than he already was. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing” the woman hissed at Erik. “He saved my life, I’m trying to bloody help him” Erik replied in frustration. Why was she being so awkward? He was only trying to make things better. Emma didn’t seem to like his answer though, but was silenced by another whimper coming from Charles, who Erik had directed into sitting on one of the wooden seats that hadn’t been covered in glass. “Get me the first aid kit” Erik ordered one of the other customers, who had stood watching silently until this point. 

Erik turned back to Charles, who was watching him with very watery, large, blue eyes. The sight of the man was heart-breaking, but Erik couldn’t understand why, he didn’t even know the man and Erik never felt this way towards anyone. “I'm going to have to remove the glass” Erik informed Charles. “Don’t touch him!” Emma screamed from behind them, but did not try to separate them again. The two men chose to ignore Emma though. “Ok” was all Charles could gasp. Erik was expecting more of an argument, but Charles was obviously braver than he previously thought. Erik kneeled down in front of Charles, who grabbed hold of the collar of Erik’s t-shirt, with his hand resting on his shoulder. Charles had his eyes screwed shut, tightly, when Erik slowly removed the large shard of glass that was inserted in Charles’s palm. Charles’s only reaction was to grab onto Erik t-shirt with more force and to let out a pained noise, but he did not try to move his arm away. Erik grabbed the first aid kit off the man that had gone to collect it and began to clean the wound. This seemed to hurt Charles again, which refuelled Emma’s anger. “This is all your fault!” She announced in disdain. Charles was in too much pain to say anything and Erik chose to ignore her again. 

Erik began to bandage Charles’s hand and when he was finished, noticed that Charles was watching him with his gorgeous blue eyes. Wait. Gorgeous? When had Erik’s brain decided they were gorgeous? His thought process was interrupted by the quiet, but sincere “thank you, Erik” from Charles, who seemed to be in less pain now.

“It was no problem, Charles, I’d like to take you to the hospital though, you don’t want a nasty infection”, Erik replied.

Charles just smiled in reply, but looked at Emma when she voiced her disapproval. 

“Emma, he’s trying to help and you need to stay here to keep this place open, anyway”, then he turned to Erik “Thank you, Erik, I’d love it if you could accompany me to the hospital, although I'm sure you've done a wonderful job on my hand”.

Erik was happy that Charles seemed to be in less pain now and that Emma was not going to be with them for much longer. Both were hoping, although unknown to the other, that the waiting room would be very full and that they could spend just that bit longer together.


	3. Hospital Bound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fun times at the hospital.

It had been decided that they were going to the hospital in a taxi, as they had both walked to the coffee shop, Erik had ordered it straight away. Charles had not said anything since convincing Emma that Erik should take him to the hospital. “How are you feeling, Charles?” Erik asked, as he knelt down in front of Charles again. “I’m ok, I think I may be suffering from a bit of shock” Charles replied with a blank expression on his face. Erik had only known the man about an hour but knew that the lack of a smile on his face was a worrying sign. “You really did save my life” Erik added, putting his hand on Charles’s knee to let Charles know he was completely sincere, while he attempted to put a smile on his face. This seemed to cheer Charles up a bit as he gave a bit of a smile and his eyes seemed to light up. “Do you know what the worse thing about this is?” Charles asked, now looking quite amused. “What?” Erik asked, feeling slightly confused at the younger man’s sudden change in mood. “I’m right handed!” Charles said while giggling and holding up his injured right hand. For some unknown reason, Erik couldn’t help but laugh at that, in fact they both ended up in fits of laughter, with Erik knelt down and Charles sitting hunched over on a chair in front of him. Luckily, Emma had be cornered by Alex in the store cupboard and was busy explaining what had happened.

“Ok, so how many fingers am I holding up?” Erik asked in an amused voice, while holding 4 fingers up. “Errrrrrrm, 14” Charles answered and started to laugh at what he thought was a hilarious answer. This made Erik chuckle again and he realised that the colour had come back to Charles’s face, so laugher really was the best medicine. “Is Emma always this angry?” Erik inquired once he was sure she was out of ear shot. “She can be quite protective sometimes” Charles replied with a quite embarrassed look on his face. “So it’s not just me then?” Erik had always worked alone until recently, when he had been partnered with James, and he had never been good at making friends, but something about Charles made him very easy to talk to. “I don’t think so, I don’t see how anybody could dislike you…” Charles stopped, obviously realising that he had said this out loud and not in his head, now the colour had definitely returned to his face, turning him an embarrassed shade of red. Erik was about to say something funny in reply when the taxi pulled up and the driver beeped the horn.

The two men made their way to the taxi and Erik opened the door, instead of getting inside, he moved out of the way and gestured for Charles to get in first. “Oh, what a gentleman” Charles joked. Erik just grinned in reply and climbed in after him, wondering where that behaviour had come from, something about Charles made Erik want to do nice things for him. Erik banged against Charles’s side as he sat down, he had expected Charles to sit on the seat closest to the window, but instead he had elected to sit in the middle seat, right next to Erik. A seating arrangement that both men were more than happy with. Charles told the driver that they wanted to go to the hospital, as Erik had seemed to lose the ability to speak. He could feel the entire length of Charles’s leg pressed against his own, the warmth felt very nice, as he never did get the chance to dry off in the coffee shop, and his clothes were still damp.

They remained silent for the rest of the journey, but it was a comfortable silence, not an awkward one. Once at the hospital, Erik climbed out of the taxi and paid the driver, he turned to notice that Charles was trying to shuffle out of taxi without using his hand, a feat that he was currently failing at. Erik put his hand under Charles’s arm and gently pulled him forwards, letting Charles put his weight on him. Charles couldn’t help but feel that Erik was one of the kindest people he had ever met, and couldn’t believe how wrong Emma had been about him. They made their way into the hospital and went to the reception desk. The receptionist assessed that Charles was not an emergency and handed him a form to fill out. They made their way to nearby seats and sat down in a large, brightly lit waiting room on the ground floor of the hospital. Charles held the paper in his left hand and went to pick up the pen when he realised that there was no way he was going to be able to write. He heard Erik chuckle beside him, obviously coming to the same conclusion and Erik took the pen and paper.

“Name?” Erik asked, putting on a school teacher’s voice. He was happy with his decision to do this as it gained him a lovely smile from Charles. “Mr Charles Xavier, Sir” Charles answered and they both burst into a fit of laughter again, which ended in them receiving many funny looks from the other people in the waiting room. They continued to fill the rest of the form out, this time using their regular voices and Erik went to hand it back in once they had finished.

They sat for a few more minutes, talking about the coffee shop. Erik found out that Charles was studying advanced genetics at university and had already completed a course on human biology. Charles’s face lit up when Erik asked him about his work on mutation, but when Charles asked what he did, Erik could only tell him that he worked for MI5. “So, if you tell me, you’d have to kill me?” Charles joked, “hmmmm, I don’t think I could do that” Erik answered while prodding Charles’s knee, he suddenly felt embarrassed again. He looked back up and found that Charles was looking back at him with those big, blue eyes and gorgeous smile again, Erik couldn’t help but smile back. That is how the nurse found them, two idiots sat grinning at each other.

“Charles Xavier?” She inquired. “Yes, that’s me”, Charles answered while standing up. Erik went to stand too, but the nurse held a hand up “Sorry Sir, only family of the patient can come in”. Erik was about to protest, but he was beaten to it. “Wait, he’s my husband!” Charles announced straight away, while grabbing Erik’s hand. Charles thought that maybe he had crossed a line again, but he really didn’t want to be alone right now because he hated hospitals, and his brain had acted before he had realised what he was doing, once again. To his surprise and delight, Erik didn’t pull away or correct him, instead he held Charles’s hand in a firm grip and directed a very smug look towards the nurse. “Oh, sorry”, the nurse said with a sheepish look on her face as she directed them to a set of doors.

As they walked down the corridor, hand in hand, with the nurse walking behind them, they happened to catch each other’s eye. They both had to hold back another fit of laughter at the bizarre situation they found themselves in, their shoulders shaking with silent laughter. They entered the examining room and Erik took a seat near the door. He checked his phone while Charles was getting examined, two missed calls from James. Great, he probably wanted to plan the next mission already. “Just avoid using your hand for a couple of days and it should heal perfectly”, Erik heard the doctor say as she removed her disposable latex gloves and left the room. Charles had a newly bandaged hand and a box full of painkillers in the other as he approached Erik.

“All finished, husband?” Erik couldn’t help but asking and also couldn’t remove the grin from his face. “Yes, husband” Charles replied, looking equally amused. They left the hospital and stopped outside and breathed in the cold, British air.

Erik wasn’t sure how Charles would react, but took the risk none the less. “Well, since you can’t use your hand, I feel like I shouldn’t leave you alone, you might not survive!” Erik Joked. “Whatever will I do?” Charles joked back. “You could come back to my flat if you like, I can cook you something, it’s the least I could do!” Erik went for it. “I would love to, Erik” Charles replied a little too quickly, with a huge smile on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone that has left kudos or commented! :D


	4. Getting Comfortable

Erik calculated that it would only take around about 15 minutes to walk back to his flat, and thankfully it had stopped raining. He hadn’t received any more calls or messages from James, so he was hoping that he had let it go and gone out somewhere. “Are you ok with walking?” Erik asked Charles. “Hmmmmm, I don’t think I’ll make it” Charles joked, holding up his hand and putting on a pained face. Erik laughed too but decided to sneak up behind Charles and pretend to pick him up “aww the wounded soldier needs a carry!” Charles began to shuffle away from Erik’s outstretched arms and Erik chased him. They only got a few metres though, before their laughter prevented them from going any further.

They started to walk slowly down the empty street, Charles took the opportunity to inform Erik of many random facts about the buildings they were passing. “And this one is from the Victorian era…” Charles was saying, “you’re quite the genius” Erik grinned, usually he would find this conversation very boring, but he enjoyed the way Charles’s face would light up when he got to talk about things he liked, and history was obviously one of those things. Charles’s face turned an impressive shade of red at Erik’s compliment.

Charles decided to change the conversation then and decided that if Erik couldn’t tell him about his job, he could tell him about other parts of his life. “What’s your favourite colour?” he asked Erik. “Green”, Erik decided not to comment on how random the question was, “what’s yours?” he added. “Red” Charles replied. That’s how the conversation continued, all the way back to the flat. Favourite colours, animals, foods, drinks, basically anything that Charles could think of. They arrived back at the flat and Erik was annoyed to see that the curtains were still open, so James hadn’t decided to go out after all.

Erik unlocked the front door and gestured Charles to go inside. He passed Charles and led him towards the living area. It was at that point that James chose to lecture Erik about his earlier disappearance, he came crashing out of his bedroom “oh so you’ve finally decided to return… oh” he stopped as he saw Charles. James was a very tall man and could be quite scary looking when he was angry, judging by the fact that the Charles was literally hiding behind Erik, he must be looking quite scary right now. “James, this is Charles” he gestured towards Charles but didn’t move out of the way, mainly because Charles looked adorable hiding behind him. “Hi” was all that Charles said, even Erik knew this was strange for the younger man, he could talk for England usually. James said hello back and went straight back into his bedroom, looking even more annoyed than he had when he came out. “Don’t mind him, he’s the world’s angriest man and I’m stuck with him as a partner” Erik told Charles.

It was at that point that Erik noticed Charles looked remarkably unhappy. “Partner?” was all Charles said, in a downbeat voice. Erik couldn’t help but burst into laughter then, realising what Charles had thought. Charles looked confused and sad, so Erik decided to quickly put him out of his misery. “Work partner, Charles! You thought he was my boyfriend didn’t you?” Erik didn’t even attempt to hide the huge grin on his face at the fact that Charles had looked so upset at the thought of Erik being in a relationship. “No” Charles said in a very quiet voice while he pretended to look embarrassed, but Erik could see that he was trying not to smile and was obviously lying. “Just for the record, do you have a boyfriend... or girlfriend?” Erik asked, but couldn’t look at Charles when he did, he didn’t know what his face would do if Charles answered yes. “Nope, and just for the record, I am gay too” Charles chuckled, happy that he wasn’t the one looking embarrassed now. “Good” Erik replied, not entirely sure how Charles knew that he was too, maybe he was a mind reader. He tried to hide the blush on his face by not looking in Charles’s direction. When they finally did meet each other’s eyes, they began to laugh again. That seemed to be happening a lot in the past few hours.

“Would you like anything to drink?” Erik asked. “Tea, please” he heard Charles shout as he made his way into the kitchen. He looked in the cupboards while the kettle was boiling and wondered how he had forgot that they literally had no food in. Hopefully Charles likes takeaway food. Erik came back into the room with two cups of tea and made sure he placed the cup in Charles’s left hand, almost burning his hand so that Charles could grab the handle. “Takeaway?” Erik asked. “Pizza?” Charles replied. They fussed around with the menu for 10 minutes and finally decided what they wanted. Erik went to get the phone and order while Charles looked around the room. The flat looked near enough empty, with no photographs or art on the walls and only the bare minimum furniture. Still, it was nice and cosy. They flicked on the TV and decided on Hot Fuzz, which had only just started. The pizza arrived about 25 minutes later, in that time they had sat in a comfortable silence, occasionally laughing at the film.

They decided to sit on the floor and eat straight out of the boxes. Erik made sure that he didn’t hand Charles the boxes directly, he didn’t want Charles to accidently use his hand. Two slices in and Charles decided that he really wanted some of Erik’s pizza. Erik seemed to realise this when he saw Charles eyeing up his pizza. “Oh don’t you dare” Erik said, although it was obvious that he was joking. Charles’s hand shot towards the pizza and grabbed a slice. Erik, seeing this, grabbed Charles’s arm, not too tightly though and made sure to watch his other hand, and pounced on Charles. They tumbled sideways and Charles ended up lying on his back on the floor with Erik lying above him on his right side. Erik still had hold of Charles’s arm which held the pizza. He slowly started to pull Charles’s hand towards his mouth, which caused Charles to giggle and shout “noooooo, I won that fair and square”, “fair and square my arse” Erik replied, while using Charles’s hand to feed himself. “That’s not fair, you’re stronger than me!” Charles laughed as he poked the large muscles on Erik’s arm. Erik stuck his tongue out and grabbed the finger that Charles had used to poke him. He pinned Charles’s hand above his head and looked him directly into his eyes. “Who says I play fair?” Erik said with a cheeky grin on his face. It was at that point that the two men seemed to realise the position that they were in, although neither could bring themselves to be embarrassed. Instead, they just continued to laugh while they sat up and eat the rest of their food, this time Erik allowed Charles to eat his pizza and took the opportunity to steal Charles’s chips.

Charles could not remember the last time he felt this content, Erik couldn’t remember the last time that he felt this comfortable around another person. “What are you doing tomorrow?” Charles inquired. “I’m working tomorrow, unfortunately” Erik replied. “What about Thursday? I’m working until 1 but I’m free for the rest of the day” Charles countered. “What did you have in mind? Erik asked, unsure at what Charles was getting at. “Well I was thinking that we could do something, I’d very much like to see you again.” Charles was hoping that Erik felt the same. “I could meet you at the coffee shop at 1 if you’d like” Erik proposed. “I’d love that” Charles was delighted that he would be able to see Erik again so soon. His mood was slightly dampened by the fact that Emma would be working then, but he didn’t want to scare Erik off already, so he chose not to disclose that piece of information.

“Would you like to watch another film?” Erik only had a few films in the flat but he was hoping that Charles would like at least one of them. Charles was more than happy to stay for longer and couldn’t care less which film they were watching. “Yep”, Charles popped the ‘p’ and smiled. Erik grabbed two DVD’s and held them up to Charles. They settled on Four Lions and sat down next to each other to watch. 30 minutes into the film and it was starting to get very dark outside, but neither wanted to move to turn the light on or close the curtains. They had started out simply sat next to each other, but at some point Erik had dragged the coffee table over with his foot and put his feet up, he had then sunk further into his seat and put his arms up on the back of the sofa. Of course, Charles was sat next to him and had felt his muscular arm against his head. He decided that if Erik was comfortable with this, and he obviously was, then Charles wasn’t going to protest. He sunk down further into his seat too, meaning the entire length of his body was pressed against Erik’s and he was basically using Erik’s shoulder as a pillow.

Another 20 minutes had passed, when they both heard James leave his bedroom. Charles shot forward, although he had no idea why, but before he could get far, Erik caught the back of his t-shirt and pulled him back into the same position he had just been in. “You’re not allowed to move, I’m far too comfortable” Erik joked, but was entirely serious about Charles not moving. James entered the room then and was obviously not expecting them to be here, probably because the light was off. He paused half way into the room and looked from Erik to Charles and back again. Erik raised an eyebrow at James, daring him to say something. James just narrowed his eyes at Erik and went to leave the room again. He would never admit it, but he was happy that Erik was finally talking to somebody, he’d known him over a year and he had never seen the man even attempt to make a friend. Charles had managed to bury himself even further into his seat while James had been in the room, Erik noticed this and thought it made him look even cuter.

With the incident forgotten, they continued to watch the film. Whenever Erik laughed, Charles could feel the movement, he really didn’t want the film to end. Eventually it did though, but to Erik’s delight, Charles suggested watching another film and Erik got up to change the disks over. They chose to watch The Hobbit, it was actually one of James’s films and Erik had never seen it before. “Oh, you’ve never lived!” Charles joked and Erik went back to his position next to Charles, “it better be good” Erik joked back with a grin on his face. “I give you my word” Charles said as he put his injured hand over his heart. Erik smiled again and asked Charles how his hand was feeling. “It’s really fine, definitely worth it” Charles replied sincerely. “I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to repay you for it” Erik mused. “Well you aren’t doing too badly at the minute” Charles replied as Erik held his wrist in his hand, slowly moving his arm around to get a better look at the bandaging. As the film went on, Erik kept sneaking looks at Charles’s face, he had a look of pure concentration, staring at the TV screen. Of course, every time he looked away, Erik seemed to miss something important and had to ask Charles what was happening. This didn’t bother Charles at all, especially since he knew exactly why Erik wasn’t paying attention. Erik wasn’t being as inconspicuous as he thought he was being. Inevitably, the film finished and they were both more than happy to watch the next one, Charles had been right about the film of course and Erik had liked it.

They watched most of the film in silence, Erik would occasionally ask Charles a question, which he would always be able to answer. “I like his eyes” Erik said eventually, referring to Legolas, “they’re so blue, but not as nice as yours” he added, hoping to gain another smile from Charles. A smile was exactly what he got, and Charles nudged Erik’s shoulder with his head, “well I like your eyes too, Erik” Charles responded. When this film finished, they decided it was probably too late to watch another. Erik was adamant that he would walk Charles home, but Charles decided it would be easier if he just got a taxi, although he appreciated the concern. Erik decided that it would be a great idea for them to swap numbers “just in case plans for Thursday need to change” he had said, although he really had no intention to change them. 

“See you on Thursday” Erik called, as Charles climbed into the taxi. “I look forward to it!” Charles shouted through the open window as the taxi started to move. Erik went back to his flat and closed the door. He lent back on the door and let out a breath that he didn’t know he had been holding. He had a massive smile on his face and hadn’t felt this content in a very long time. In the taxi, Charles also had a massive smile on his face and felt equally as happy, already looking forward to Thursday.


	5. What are we?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year!

Erik spent the whole of Wednesday morning gaining intel on their target and then the whole of the afternoon sat in a car with James on a stakeout, this was by far the most boring part of his job. “So… Charles?” James asked. Erik had been waiting for him to ask all day. “I don’t know, I only met him yesterday” was all Erik replied. “But you do like him?” James tried to drag it out of Erik. “Put it this way, I never knew it was possible to like somebody so much in such a short period of time”. “Well, time is not a measure of quality, infatuation or love” James replied, this was probably the most serious conversation the two had ever had. “Cheers to that” Erik said, clicking his bottle of coca cola against James’s, effectively ending the conversation.

Meanwhile, Charles was happy to be having a rare day off. He didn’t even get out of bed until half past 11, already wishing it was tomorrow. He decided that he might as well spend his day doing something productive, so he spent some of it doing some of his work for university and the rest tidying the clutter in his flat, making sure each and every book was in its correct place. Around about 5:15 he heard his phone, indicating that he had a message. It might be Erik! He literally dragged his phone out of his pocket and had to admit that he was a little disappointed that it was his sister, even if he hadn’t seen her for 4 months. She’d been in Italy since then, he’d spoken to her a few times on skype, but that was it.

Hi Charles! Great news, I’m coming back to England for a week in 2 weeks! Text you with times later. See you soon x 

Charles was absolutely delighted that he was going to see his sister soon and text her back straight away.

~

Thursday came at last and Charles was up far earlier than he usually would be. Today he actually wanted to make sure his hair looked presentable. He was even in the shower for 15 minutes longer than he usually would be, although this could have been because he was finding it hard to keep his bandages dry. He picked out one of his favourite outfits, black skinny jeans, black converses and a simple red shirt, and folded them neatly into his bag. We made his way to work and was greeted by Emma unlocking the door of the coffee shop. 

“You look happy today sugar, how’s the hand?” Emma greeted him.

“I am very happy today thank you, Emma. The hand is fine too!” Charles answered with a huge smile on his face, unsure of whether Emma would get angry again at the mention of Erik’s name. He knew that she was going to see him when he got here later, but at least this way, he wouldn’t have to listen to her saying horrible things about ‘that type of man’ all day.

“Well take it easy today, Sean’s working with you so make sure he does all the heavy lifting” Emma giggled and winked at Charles as they both saw Sean approaching them.

The hours were passing so slowly for Charles, but thankfully Emma had spent most of her day in the office, which is where Charles hoped she would be when Erik got here.

“So Emma told me that some guy caused that huge gash on your hand” Sean said as he nodded towards Charles’s hand. Charles had been daydreaming at that point but was dragged out of his happy thoughts by what Sean had said. “What? Erik didn’t cause this! Don’t listen to what Emma says, it was entirely accidental!” “Whoa, sorry Charles. Only repeating what I was told!” Sean replied quickly, holding his hands up, Charles hadn’t realised he had started to raise his voice and had a very annoyed expression on his face. “Sorry, it’s just that it really wasn’t his fault” Charles said much more calmly. He spent the next couple of hours trying to avoid talking to anybody, which was hard since they were all working in the same relatively small building.  


~

 

Meanwhile, Erik had been woken up by his alarm at 10. He’d gone for his jog, which he went on every single morning, then took a long shower when he got back. He dressed in dark blue jeans, which were not cheap, and a rather tight, short sleeved white t-shirt. He had breakfast and watched TV for a while. That only got him to just after 12 o’ clock though and he was extremely bored waiting around. He decided he might as well go to the coffee shop early, he could always order a drink and wait for Charles there. He set off, making sure that his hair was perfect first though, and arrived at the coffee shop at half past 12.  
~

 

Charles was putting cups under the counter when he heard the bell above the door indicate that a new customer had arrived. “Can I help… oh, Hi Erik!” Charles beamed as he realised who it was. He hadn’t realised that it was 1 o’clock already. He looked down at his watch and realised that that was because it was not 1 o’clock. He heard the office door open behind him and could not believe his bad luck. Emma came in carrying more boxes of cups for him to put away and didn’t seem to notice Erik until she had put them down.

“You again, what are you even doing here? Do you not think you’ve done enough damage?” Emma looked so angry. Her outburst didn’t even phase Erik though, who just ignored her. “Cappuccino please, Charles” was all he said. Charles was happy to ignore Emma too and went to pick up a clean cup. That was when Emma grabbed his arm and dragged him away from the counter. “Why are you being so nice to him Charles? You should be telling him where to go!” Emma whispered, although it was not as quiet as she thought. “Emma, he’s absolutely not what you think, he was a true gentleman yesterday. I really like him.” Charles didn’t want to lie to her and also didn’t need her approval, no matter how much he’d like it, Emma had been like a sister to him, he’d known her nearly his whole life.

“Charles, you can’t trust men like that” she continued. “Look Emma, I don’t know if you’ve had a bad experience with a man that looks like Erik, but Erik is not that guy.” Emma was stunned, she wasn’t going to admit it to Charles but that was basically the reason she hated Erik so much. As far as she was concerned, Charles had never been in a proper relationship before and she knew that Erik was just going to hurt him. “Charles…”, “No, Emma, he is not who you think he is!” Charles was trying not to get annoyed. Emma could see that there would be no reasoning with Charles and decided that she didn’t need to convince him, Erik would show his true colours pretty soon anyway, she didn’t want Charles to get hurt but maybe it would be for the best. She huffed and stormed off back to her office.

Charles watched Emma walk away and didn’t bother going after her. He looked back over to Erik, who had a very concerned look on his face. “You okay?” he asked as Charles approached him. “I’ll be fine, I’ll tell you about it soon.” Erik just smiled, glad that Emma hadn’t upset him too much. “You can sit near the heater this time! You’re absolutely not sitting near the window” Charles exclaimed. “Yes, boss” Erik laughed and went towards the back of the coffee shop to wait for Charles to finish his shift. “Who’s that?” Sean asked, seeing Erik smile at Charles from across the room. “A friend” Charles answered and busied himself with cleaning all the surfaces. 1 o’clock finally came and Charles went to get changed and clock out. When he came back out, Erik was waiting for him near the door with a huge grin on his face.

“So, what did you have in mind?” Charles asked as soon as they left the coffee shop. “I believe this was your idea” Erik joked, although he really hadn’t planned anything for the day, as long as Charles was there he didn’t care what else was happening. “Hmmm, you’re very right, Erik” Charles replied, Erik had to chuckle at how formal Charles always sounded. “We could go back to my flat” Charles proposed. Erik raised an eyebrow at him and gave a cheeky grin. “That’s not what I meant, it’s only the second date!” Charles exclaimed when he realised what his comment had sounded like. Erik was really laughing now. “I know, I know. I just wanted to see you blush”. Well Charles was certainly blushing now. “So, you consider this a date then?” Erik asked, with the cheeky grin still in place on his face. “Absolutely” Charles answered, banging his shoulder against Erik’s as they walked down the street. They both continued to walk with matching smiles on their faces and after Charles had explained what had happened with Emma and then after Erik had calmed down, they started to play a game of ‘what would you do if….’.

“What would you do if… errrrrrm, if I…. errrrrm held your hand right now?” Charles rushed that last part, but watched Erik closely for his reaction. As soon as Erik had comprehended what Charles had said he had started to laugh, thinking that he was joking. One look at Charles’s face told him that he was being entirely serious. Erik couldn’t even hide his smile and grabbed Charles’s hand immediately. Charles had not been expecting that reaction at all. They had only known each other for 3 days and already, Charles had never felt more at home than he did now with Erik’s strong hand clasping his own, in a firm grip. Erik felt exactly the same, Charles’s hand was much smaller than his and fit into his hand perfectly, it was at that point that he remembered the words James had said the previous day. “Time is not a measure of quality, infatuation or love”, well Erik could not deny his feelings for Charles, and Charles certainly wouldn’t deny his for Erik. Neither cared how long they had known each other, they were both extremely happy with the situation, and that was all that mattered right now.

They reached Charles’s flat around 15 minutes later and went through the front door still holding hands. Charles dragged Erik through to the living area and stopped near the sofa, looking around he was so glad that he had decided to tidy up the day before. Erik was looking around the room too, the place was nearly the complete opposite to his own flat, the walls were full of photos and art and every shelf was full of books, DVD’s and other random things that Charles had collected over the years. He had to admit, it was much nicer than his own flat.

“Well, I have to admit, now that we’re here, I really don’t know what to do” Charles admitted. “Hmmmm” Erik was still looking around the room and spotted a large CD player. His face lit up as he dragged Charles over to it and pressed play. He turned to Charles with a huge grin on his face and Charles just knew what he was thinking. They spent the next half hour dancing around Charles’s flat, Erik was nowhere near as good a dancer as Charles was, but that didn’t matter when they were really more flinging each other around than actually dancing. At one point, Erik decided to swing Charles around and dip him, something that they both found hilarious for some unknown reason. They both ended up collapsing onto the sofa in fits of laugher and Charles was completely out of breath.

Erik had landed with both his leg stretched out on the seats and Charles had landed on the other end. Erik put one foot on the floor and left the leg stretched out against the back of the sofa, he gestured Charles to come closer with his hand. At first Charles looked really shy, but when he looked into Erik’s eyes and saw that he was completely sincere, moved towards Erik. Erik pulled Charles in so his back was against Erik’s chest, sat in-between Erik’s outstretched legs. Erik grabbed Charles’s hand again and started to rub his thumb over Charles’s. “Charles, I’m not going to lie, I REALLY like you” Erik felt no need to hold it in, he could tell that he wasn’t going to scare Charles off with his words. “That’s just as well, because I really like you too, Erik.” Charles laid his head back against Erik’s strong shoulder so that he could see his face, they both had matching smiles again. “What are we?” Charles asked. “I think it’s too early to label it, but I’d love to have the opportunity for it to become something” Erik replied honestly. “Yes, me too” Charles agreed. Charles put his head back down again and Erik rested his hand on the top of Charles, completely content. They stayed like that for a few more minutes, completely comfortable just listening to each other’s breathing. “Would you like a cup of tea?” Charles suddenly said, appalled with himself that he’d forgot to ask when they had first arrived. “I’d love on” Erik answered. 

Instead of letting Charles go off and make him his tea, Erik followed and ended up doing everything other than boiling the kettle. Charles wasn’t complaining. They went back into the living area and sat down, in a very similar position that they had been in while at Erik’s flat, but this time Erik had his arm wrapped around Charles, with his hand resting on Charles’s stomach. They ended up watching rubbish day time TV for hours, chatting about complete randomness every time the adverts came on. They settled on watching a quiz show and Erik was in complete awe at how Charles seemed to know every answer. Charles loved how Erik was subconsciously rubbing Charles’s stomach every time he got an answer right. “We are going to have to plan to do something other than watching TV” Charles joked a while after the quiz show had finished. “Hmmmm yeah, don’t worry, I’ll be taking you out for dinner” Erik answered, already planning it in his head. Charles beamed up at him, he had only been joking, but he was more than happy with that reply.

They spent another hour watching TV before they both started to get hungry. Instead of cooking they decided to order takeaway again. “You’re going to get me fat!” Charles joked, even though the Chinese had been his idea. “You’d still look gorgeous” Erik replied as Charles blushed. Charles tried to hide his smile by shoving a fork full of noodles into his mouth. “Do you want some of this chicken?” Erik asked, holding it out for Charles, instead of taking it from him, Charles just bent forwards and ate it straight out of Erik’s hands. Making Erik chuckle and wonder if there was any body in the world that was as adorable as Charles. He highly doubted it. The evening passed similar to it had at Erik’s house, watching films and talking about such random topics.

About an hour into Lord of the Rings and Charles was starting to fall asleep. “Do you want me to get going?” Erik whispered into Charles’s ear. “No” Charles replied as he buried himself further into Erik’s side, determined to stay awake. Erik chuckled and moved so that he was facing sideways, Charles head was against his chest and was leaning into Erik with all his weight, who now had one leg behind Charles and the other under Charles’s legs, with Charles near enough asleep in his lap. Charles fell asleep like that, feeling completely safe and comfortable in Erik’s arms. Erik turned the TV off and tried to move as little as possible as he rested his head against the back of the sofa and fell asleep too, the heat coming off Charles speeding up that process.


	6. Bodyguard

Charles was the first to wake up in the morning. During the night they had moved so that they were both lying down, Charles was on top of Erik but had been pinned down by Erik’s leg. Erik’s hand was under his shirt and felt very warm against his stomach. He really needed the toilet but he was far too comfortable to move. He also didn’t want to disturb the absolute look of peace on Erik’s face. He didn’t have to wait long though, until Erik began to stir, he wasn’t awake yet but pulled Charles further into him, completely wrapping his arm around his waist and burying his face in Charles’s hair. A few minutes later, Charles felt the pressure ease off and heard Erik let out a long, heavy breath. Charles looked up at Erik, who still had a peaceful expression on his face, but now had his eyes open. “Hi” Charles whispered. “Hello, you” Erik replied, a huge smile on his face, giving Charles’s waist a squeeze.

They remained in the same position for a few more minutes as they were waking up properly. Eventually, Charles couldn’t hold it any longer and had to go to the toilet. Erik let go of Charles and moved his leg so that Charles could actually get up. As Charles was coming back into the room, he was blessed with the perfect sight. Erik was stretching, still laid down on the sofa, his shirt was riding up to his chest and Charles had a perfect view of his tanned stomach. He really was gorgeous. Erik felt eyes on him again and looked up to see Charles staring at him with a cute smile on his face. Charles didn’t even bother to make it look like he hadn’t been staring and was jubilant when Erik gestured him other with his hand. Charles was just about to sit down next to Erik, when Erik grabbed him by the waist and pulled Charles down on top of him. Now they were chest to chest, with Charles’s head above Erik’s heart and Erik’s hand playing with Charles’s hair, which was currently sticking up at every possible angle. Charles grabbed the remote control and turned the TV on, neither of them was really watching it though, Charles was perfectly content with his eyes closed, listening to Erik’s heart beat while Erik played with his hair. Erik had his eyes closed too as he wrapped Charles’s hair round his fingers. They remained there for quite a while before one of their stomachs rumbled.

They eventually disentangled their limbs, the clock indicating that it was lunch time, and made their way into Charles’s kitchen. Charles yawned and lent his head against the cupboard door with his eyes closed. He wasn’t even tired, he was just still warm from Erik’s body heat and completely content. He turned around to ask what Erik liked for breakfast, ignoring the fact that it was really lunch time. Just as he was about to open his mouth, Erik grabbed his waist and hoisted him up so that he was sat on the counter, with Erik stood between his legs and his hands still on Charles’s waist. “Have you got any milk?” Erik asked, he obviously had the same idea as Charles about ignoring lunch time. “Plenty in the fridge” Charles answered, laying his head on Erik’s shoulder. Erik rubbed his hands up and down Charles's side a few times and moved towards the fridge to get the milk. Charles turned and pulled the cereal out of the cupboard, without actually moving off the counter. Erik could only find one bowl on the drying wrack so he just filled it up all the way to the top and got two spoons. He went to stand back in between Charles’s legs and handed him the other spoon. They ate the cereal with Erik holding the bowl and Erik filled it back up again so they could have more.

When they had finished eating, they both felt much more awake. Erik sat watching the TV while Charles got a quick shower. He went into his room to get changed and grabbed another towel in case Erik wanted to get a shower too. “Do you want to go in the shower too?” Charles asked as he re-entered the room. “I’ve got to go to the gym today, I’ll just have one there” Erik replied. “Oh, ok” Charles said, a bit downbeat that Erik wouldn’t be spending the whole day with him. “I have to submit my fitness data to the agency every week, but you can come with me if you want” Erik proposed. “Ok!” Charles was thrilled that he’d been invited, although he hadn’t been to the gym in a very long time, he didn’t actually plan to work up much of a sweat. He went back into his bedroom and shoved some clothes into a bag that would be suitable for the gym.

“Do we need to go back to your flat first?” Charles asked as they were leaving the flat. “No, I’ve got gym clothes and a spare outfit in my locker at the gym”. They got about half a street away before Charles grabbed Erik’s hand, this time he was sure that Erik wouldn’t pull away. They walked to the gym, talking about Charles’s job at the coffee shop and the people that he worked with. “Sean and Alex are alright, you’ll have to meet them some time, although I’ll probably have to tell them I’m gay before that” Charles laughed as Erik joined in.

When they reached the gym, Erik directed Charles to the changing rooms and they both got changed. Erik had certain things he had to do so that he could submit his data and he wanted to get it done as fast as possible. He completed his session on the treadmill while he laughed at Charles testing out the speed settings on the treadmill next to him, Charles opting for a brisk walk. He then headed to the weights room while Charles went to fill up a bottle of water at the water fountain. Charles entered the room and saw Erik sat on the bench next to a weight machine, adjusting it. He started to make his way towards Erik and got about a metre away when he suddenly tripped over some sort of wire. He didn’t fall over but when he turned to see what had tripped him, he saw a very angry man picking up his phone from the floor, he had been lying on the floor and had his earphones stretching from his phone on the bench. The man looked extremely angry as he towered above Charles. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” the man roared, uncaring of the fact that it was clearly an accident. Charles flinched and went to step backwards as the man went to grab the front of his t-shirt. Just as he went to move backwards he hit something solid and panicked.

However, he was absolutely relieved to notice that it was in fact Erik had was appeared behind him and Erik looked even more annoyed than the man in front of him. Erik pulled Charles back against his chest and put one arm around him, putting his hand over Charles’s stomach from behind and moving it back and forward in a soothing motion, his other hand was intertwining with Charles’s injured hand, pulling it up so that it was also against his stomach. He looked directly into the eyes of the man that had shouted at Charles, the man had towered above Charles but was dwarfed by Erik. “Excuse me?” Erik strained through his teeth, looking like he was actually going to murder the man. “Sorry” the man was the one flinching now, with a shocked look on his face as he took a step backwards, he looked at Charles then and repeated himself. “That’s what I thought” Erik seethed as the man made his way out of the room. Charles let out a massive breath of air as Erik twisted him so that they were facing each other. “Are you ok?” He asked, all the care back in his voice, with worried eyes. “Yes, I’m fine, only thanks to you though” Charles was clutching the upper part of Erik’s arm but let go to try and make it look like he was in fact fine. “I should probably watch where I’m going” Charles joked. “It wasn’t your fault, Charles, he tries that with anyone that he thinks he’s stronger than, horrible man” Erik informed Charles. Charles sat down on the bench next to Erik and was in awe at the man next to him.

“I’m taking you out for dinner tonight” Erik informed Charles as he wrote something down on his chart. Charles beamed back at him as they made their way back to the changing room. Erik grabbed his bag from his locker and went to get showered and changed. Charles got changed and played Tetris on his phone while he waited for Erik. He got a text from his sister while he was waiting.

Changed my flight, will be in England on Monday at 11am, can you meet me at the airport? x

Charles text back informing his sister that of course he would meet her there and was already looking forward to Monday.

Erik appeared at the doorway then. “Ready to go?” he asked. “Yep” Charles replied. “What are you smiling so much about?” Erik inquired with a matching smile on his face as Charles reached him. “My sister is coming home for a week on Monday!” Charles informed Erik. “That’s great! What’s your sister called?” That was the start of the conversation that lasted until they got back to Charles’s flat. By the time they reached Charles’s front door, both men could probably name and give at least two facts about every family member in the other man’s family.

They settled down again on the sofa, Erik called to make reservations at his favourite restaurant for 8pm while Charles made them both a cup of tea. Erik had a change of smart clothes that he had picked up from the gym so he didn’t even have to go back to his flat. They cuddled up on the sofa so they could waste a few hours away before they had to get ready to go.


	7. First Kiss

At 7’ o clock they decided that they should probably get ready. Charles begrudgingly untucked himself from Erik’s side and headed to his bedroom. He didn’t know how smartly he needed to dress and really didn’t want to overdo it. After removing almost every item of clothing from his wardrobe and holding them up against himself to look in the mirror, he elected to wear black washed jeans, a white shirt and a black waistcoat, he’d add the jacket if it was needed. He fixed his hair in the mirror and went back to Erik. When Erik saw Charles re-enter the room he had to do a double take, Charles looked amazing. “Wow, you look good” Erik grinned as he complimented Charles. Charles was thrilled and couldn’t help the blush that was forming on his face. “So do you” he replied as Erik passed him. “I haven’t even got changed yet!” Erik laughed. “Well you look good whatever you’re wearing so that’s irrelevant, Erik” Charles said truthfully.

He said this just as Erik had turned to him. They stood a few centre meters apart and were grinning at each other. Erik took the opportunity to pull Charles towards him by his hips and Charles hit Erik’s chest as he wrapped his arms around his neck. Right then, Erik couldn’t hold off, he had to do the thing he had wanted to do since the hospital. He leaned forward, slowly so that Charles had chance to pull away if he wanted to, but of course Charles had been waiting for this moment too. Their lips met as they stared into each other’s eyes. The kiss was gentle for a long time, until Erik licked along Charles’s bottom lip. It became much more heated then and Erik pushed Charles up against the wall. Charles’s hands were all over Erik’s hair as they kissed passionately, while Erik grabbed Charles by his thighs and hoisted him up so that he was trapped between Erik and the wall. Charles wrapped his legs around Erik’s waist and pulled him even closer.

Eventually they had to come up for air, this only lasted a few seconds though, until they looked into each other’s eyes again and started a kiss that was even more passionate than the last, as they explored the other’s mouth. They unwillingly parted again and Charles leaned his forehead against Erik’s “wow” he whispered, breathing heavily, a content smile on his face as he looked into Erik’s eyes. “You’re amazing” Erik whispered back. Charles responded by kissing Erik on the forehead and giggling as he tried to put Erik’s hair back into place. Erik tucked his head into the crook of Charles neck and moaned when Charles informed him that he needed to get changed. He carried Charles over to his seat and put him down carefully, giving him another peck on the lips before he walked away to get changed.

Erik unpacked his black suit from his bag and got changed as fast as possible, laughing at the mess that the hurricane known as Charles Xavier had created with his clothes. He went back into the other room and watched as Charles stood with his mouth open. “Wow Erik, now you really do look like a secret agent! I need to go change into something better” Charles said as he tried to pass Erik. Erik blocked his path and twisted him around so that Charles’s back was pressed into Erik’s chest with Erik’s arms around him. They stood facing the mirror as Erik whispered into Charles’s ear “you look perfect”. Charles replied to the compliment by putting his head back and kissing Erik again.

They arrived at the restaurant just in time and were shown to their table, which was in the far corner. They both ordered pasta dishes and ate in comfortable silence for a while. “Do you have a steady work pattern?” Charles asked out of nowhere. “No, it just depends on the case, unless the target is a severe threat, then it’s just about every day, why?” Erik answered. “Oh, are you working tomorrow?” Charles was hopeful but his smile had disappeared. “Yes, but I’m all yours on Sunday, what did you have in mind, oh and when was it that your sister was coming?” Charles’s smile reappeared then. “Nothing in particular, but I look forward to that! She’s coming on Monday morning” Charles answered.

“Does Raven know that you’re gay?” Erik asked. “No, she’s friends with Emma too, which makes that even more surprising”. “She’s friends with Emma?” Erik failed at hiding his dislike for Emma in his tone of voice. “Yes, that’s how I know Emma, she has been Raven’s friend for years.” Erik went quiet for a while and Charles was sure he knew why. He reached across the table and turned Erik’s hand so that it was facing upwards and cupped it with his own. “I don’t care what they say or think, I want to be with you, Erik” Charles spoke softly. Erik squeezed Charles’s hand as the smile came back to his face. “You aren’t getting rid of me that easily” Charles added, giggling now. “Oh I only just got you, I don’t plan on letting you go so easily” Erik smiled back.

“I’m going to tell her when she gets here” Charles announced shortly after their deserts had arrived, he’d obviously been thinking about it since Erik had asked. “How do you think she’ll take it?” Erik asked, he didn’t want Charles to be upset. “I think she’ll be fine with it, she hates discrimination of any type” Charles truly believed this but Erik could hear the worry in his voice. This time it was Erik that grabbed Charles’s hand as he assured him that it would be ok. “I’ll be there for you, whatever the outcome” he assured Charles.

They paid for their meals, neither willing to let the other pay the whole price and made their way out of the restaurant. It was half past 10 by the time they left, they had been enjoying the conversation so much that they had been eating slowly. The streets were empty except for the taxi’s waiting at the end of the road.

They stood hand in hand, neither one wanting to get in the taxi, knowing that they would be going alone. “I’ve known you less than a week and I already have that feeling of dread when I have to leave you” Erik spoke softly as he cupped Charles cheek with his large hand. “I feel the same way” Charles confirmed as they leant in for a long goodbye kiss. They had a few more ‘goodbye’ kisses before they eventually made their way towards the taxis. Erik opened the door for Charles and whispered goodbye into his ear as he bent down to climb in. “I’ll text you” Charles whispered back. “You better do” Erik chuckled as he closed the door. He waved at Charles as he made his way towards the next taxi.

As Erik was turning the light on in his bedroom, he felt his phone vibrate.

_‘Miss you already ;) Charles x’_

Erik chuckled as he removed his clothes and made his way into the bathroom.

_‘Miss you too, Darling. x’_

Charles read that text over and over again, his smile grew bigger every time he read the word ‘Darling’. Erik brushed his teeth and was leaving the bathroom when the reply came through.

_‘I want to kiss you some more. Charles x’_

Erik could imagine the blush on Charles’s face as he had sent that text and couldn’t help but grin to himself.

_‘There will be plenty of time for that on Sunday ;P x’_

_‘I can’t wait. Charles x’_

_‘Good night, Charles. I’ll make sure you are sufficiently kissed on Sunday. x’_

_‘Good night, Erik. Charles x’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspirations for Erik's and Charles's outfits:  
> https://38.media.tumblr.com/383888eacc547058ad5321329c907fbe/tumblr_mxi9xoAPRv1qhlfm8o1_1280.jpg  
> http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lml0roCsaR1qctw3f.jpg


	8. Surprise

Saturday had passed without incident. Charles worked a 6 hour shift at the coffee shop with Sean while Erik spent the day chasing his target around the city with James. Every time either of them had a spare 30 seconds they would quickly send the other a text, eventually they decided that Erik would drive to Charles’s flat on Sunday morning. Erik knew he would be tired all day, so Charles suggested that they had a lazy day lounging around, Erik was happy to agree.

Erik arrived at Charles’s flat just as Charles’s was eating his dinner. 

“Come in!” Charles shouted from his seat at the table, he knew it would be Erik.

Erik made his way into the kitchen and placed a bag on the floor. He chuckled when he caught sight of Charles, he was still in his pyjamas and his hair looked like it had never seen a brush. The smile on his face had become so familiar to Erik now that he could picture it in his head perfectly.

“Hey, you” Erik whispered in Charles’s ear as he hugged him from behind. Charles turned his head and greeted Erik with a kiss. Then a few more kisses. While Charles was distracted, Erik took the opportunity to steal some of his sandwich.

“Hey!” Charles pretended to be annoyed, but the pout on his face made him look even more adorable. Erik made a show of slowly putting the sandwich in his mouth and chewing it. This caused Charles to pick up his plate and run into the living room, closely followed by Erik, who caught up with him immediately. He grabbed Charles’s waist and easily took the plate from him, putting it down on the coffee table. He gently pushed Charles down onto the sofa and hovered above him, he kissed him so much more delicately than Charles would have ever believed Erik was capable of. They remained on the sofa for what could have been forever. Erik had worked for 14 hours yesterday and was happy to lay on the sofa all day with Charles on top of him. They were watching rubbish TV again and chatting about complete nonsense, but both of them loved it. 

At some point, Charles remembered that he hadn’t asked Erik if he wanted anything to drink.

“You’re such a bad host” Erik joked, running his thumb along Charles’s bottom lip as he pouted again. 

“Just for that, you can make your own cup of tea” Charles stuck his tongue out at Erik who found it absolutely hilarious. 

Erik sat up very suddenly, grabbing Charles’s waist so that he had to sit up with him. Now they were sitting chest to chest with Charles’s legs wrapped around Erik’s waist. Erik stood and held Charles in place as he carried him to the kitchen. Charles pressed his face into Erik’s neck and breathed him in, he always smelt so good. Charles couldn’t help but kiss along Erik’s neck, nipping occasionally, causing Erik to moan. 

“Unless you want to take this further, I wouldn’t do that” Erik joked, really wanting Charles to continue forever. Although he hadn’t been joking about the affect Charles had on him, but he didn’t want to push him into anything too quickly.

Erik put Charles down next to the sink and gave him a kiss on the top of the head as he went to grab two mugs. He returned and turned the tap on. Only, what he hadn’t realised was that there was a spoon in the sink, and the second he turned the tap on the water hit it and absolutely soaked Charles. It wouldn’t have been so bad it Erik had turned it off straight away, but he was laughing so much that he couldn’t even control his own body. 

“Erik!” Charles screamed, he looked like he’d just walked in the shower with his clothes on. Erik was doubled over laughing, with his head in his hands. That meant he didn’t see Charles go for the spoon and direct it so that the water hit Erik in the back instead. He turned around and put his arms up, but that only succeeded in getting his t-shirt soaked too. He still couldn’t stop laughing though and he absolutely adored the look of amusement on Charles’s face, who was now giggling like a teenager. Erik grabbed a glass from the draining board and filled it up, pouring the water out on Charles’s head. Charles dived off the counter and ran for cover as Erik chased him with another glass. Erik’s shot missed and Charles headed to the back garden, where the hose pipe was. Erik thought Charles was just trying to get away and, with what he would later admit was a stupid decision, followed him. He was met by a wall of water, but made his way through it to struggle with Charles for the hose pipe. They play wrestled around the garden until Erik noticed that Charles had started to shiver. 

“I think I need to warm you up now” Erik said as he held the hose pipe away from Charles, pulling him to his chest. “This means you are surrendering!” Charles laughed. “Anything for you” Erik whispered in his ear seductively. Charles would argue that his response of kissing Erik until they both ran out of breath was totally warranted.

When they made their way into the flat, Charles began to strip his clothes. Erik couldn’t help but stare, Charles was gorgeous after all and Erik was sure that he didn’t even know it. With just his boxers left on, he shoved his clothes into the washing machine. “Are you just going to stand there in wet clothes, Erik?” He asked Erik, while gesturing towards his soaking clothes. Well if Charles was fine with partial nudity, who was Erik to argue? He stripped down to his boxers too and shoved his wet clothes into the washing machine. 

Charles set the washing machine going while Erik finally got round to making the cups of tea. He went into the living room and placed the tea onto the coffee table. Noticing Charles hadn’t followed he went looking for him. He found him making his way to his bedroom. 

“Where are you going?” Erik asked. 

“Clothes” was all Charles replied, thinking it was obvious.

“Who needs clothes, I’ll keep you warm” Erik joked as he rubbed the tops of Charles arms to prove a point.

Charles seemed to take Erik’s joke seriously though and smiled that huge smile. He grabbed Erik’s hand and pulled him towards the bed.

He had a TV in his room too and it would be much warmer in here.

Erik remembered the tea and marched to get it, wanting to be as fast as possible.

Charles was waiting for him on the bed, he held the duvet up so that Erik could join him under it. Instead, Erik gestured for Charles to move forwards and piled all the pillows up against the Head board. Erik sat down with his back against it and pulled Charles to his chest, wrapping his arms around him tightly as he put his forehead down on Charles’s right shoulder. Charles pulled the covers up and rested his head back on Erik’s left shoulder, his face was pointing towards the ceiling with his eyes closed. Charles gave a sigh of contentment as he could feel Erik’s thumb making circle patterns against his stomach and his lips against his neck. Erik began to nibble on Charles neck playfully. Charles had no intention of stopping Erik from making a huge mark on the side of his neck. It was in a place that couldn’t be hidden by a t-shirt and was dark enough for people to see from the other side of a large room. Erik was admiring his work as he licked over it, Charles knew he should be more bothered about the fact the people were going to ask questions, but when Erik’s lips were sucking against his skin, he couldn’t exactly think properly. 

They settled down to watch a film, neither wanted to move at all, so they had to settle for whatever was already in the DVD player. “Pirates of the Caribbean it is then” Charles said as he pressed the play button on the remote, which was conveniently already on the bed. It was just as well really, because Erik still had his arms wrapped around Charles’s waist and he could feel Erik’s firm chest against his back, nothing could have made him get up. With their shared body heat, they had soon warmed up and Charles pushed the covers down a bit so that they were just above his waist and piled up around Erik so that only their bare chests were visible. Erik pulled his legs up a bit so that his feet were flat against the mattress, Charles didn’t even realise his hands had moved so that they were gently rubbing up and down the underneath of Erik’s muscular thighs.

“mmmmm” Charles heard Erik say against his ear, he could feel the vibration throughout his body. Charles giggled when he realised what he had been doing, and he leant his head back to kiss Erik, a lot more passionately than earlier. 

It was that exact moment, with their tongues in each other’s mouths and hands exploring the other’s body, that the door flew open.

“SURPRI….”

Raven. Raven had come home early.


	9. Love and Hate

Charles was frozen. He was staring into the eyes of his sister, but she didn’t looked shocked, no, she looked worried. 

It was at that point that he heard the gasp.

His mother and step-father were standing behind Raven.

Charles hated his step-father, he was a horrible man, and he’d never said anything nice to Charles, even when he had been accepted into one of the best universities in England, all he had said was “so you’ll finally be moving out then?” Charles wouldn’t even care, but the man seemed to have his mother wrapped round his finger, she would never disagree with him or do anything against his wishes and that was the thing Charles hated the most. 

Right now he looked enraged, Charles could see that he was breathing heavily and the vain in his neck was sticking out. That was the usual queue for Charles to leave the room, fast. But right now, Charles couldn’t move. His mother looked shocked, but not sad or angry or any other negative emotion, Charles was glad to notice. But then his step-father took a step forward, pausing again in the doorway.

It was at that point that Erik chose to remind Charles that he was there for him, he grabbed his hand under the covers and squeezed it. Charles squeezed back, it was somewhat comforting but he was still terrified of his step-father. 

“Harold” he heard his mother whisper as she placed her hand on his shoulder, he just shrugged it off, his eyes never leaving Charles’s.

“What the fuck do you think you are doing, boy?” That was Harold’s angry voice, he spoke through gritted teeth and sent shivers running down Charles’s spine. ‘Boy’ was what he had always called Charles, even years after he had turned 18.

Charles opened and closed his mouth more than once, but he couldn’t get any words to form, he didn’t even know what he was trying to say. “Kissing the man I love” probably wouldn’t help the situation.

Harold took another step forward when he realised that Charles was not going to answer. That was when Erik couldn’t just sit back and let this happen any longer. Harold didn’t stop this time, he hadn’t even looked at Erik since the first glimpse he got of him when the door opened. In fact, when Erik rose from the bed, standing in front of Charles as if he was guarding him, as Charles shuffled under the covers, Harold stopped in his tracks. Erik had been blocked by the covers and Charles’s body, but now Harold could see all of him. Harold was a shorter than average man, most of his strength came from his overweight form. Erik, on the other hand, was the perfect picture of fitness, he was a foot taller than Harold and possessed more muscle in one arm than Harold had possessed in his whole life. Of course, since he was only wearing boxers, it was all on show. Now it was Harold’s turn to look shocked, but he still managed to look just as angry.

“Wait in the living room” Erik ordered, with absolute authority in his voice. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen or what Charles wanted to do about the situation, but he knew he needed this man away from Charles. Charles expected an argument from Harold, but maybe this was the opportunity he had been looking for, the opportunity to break all contact with Charles. The man turned and stormed out of the room, Charles’s mother followed. “Raven!” he heard the man shout when he realised that she hadn’t left the room, and she quickly followed too, closing the door on her way out.

When Erik turned back to Charles, his heart could have broken in two. Charles looked terrified, confused and still shocked. Erik climbed back onto the bed and took Charles into his arms, wrapping them around him as Charles buried his face into Erik’s chest. 

“What do you want me to do, Darling?” Erik tried to say in a soothing voice as he placed kisses on the top of Charles’s head.

“Please don’t go” Charles suddenly seemed to panic, grabbing onto Erik even harder.

“Hey, hey, I’m not going anywhere unless you tell me too” Erik informed Charles. 

Charles sat back then, holding onto Erik’s hand, mainly for comfort, but also to reassure himself that Erik wasn’t going anywhere. He had just got him, he didn’t want his step-father scaring him off.

“What do you want to do?” Erik asked.

“I don’t care what he thinks, as long as I don’t lose Raven. My mother will just agree with whatever he says, it’s always been that way.” Charles wanted nothing more than his mother to tell him that everything was ok, of course he loved her, but he had stopped expecting her to show any love in return years ago. 

“What do you want me to do?” Erik asked then, trying to stop Charles from getting lost in his own thoughts.

“Can you please come out there with me? I think he might actually hit me otherwise, he hates anything that is different.”

“Of course I will” Erik said as he squeezed Charles’s hand again.

“We should probably get some clothes on first though.” Luckily, Erik had brought spare clothes in the bag that he had left on the kitchen floor, he thought it was very likely that he would fall asleep at Charles’s again. Erik ran to get his bag, thankfully, he didn’t have to go into the living room to get to the kitchen. When he got back, Charles hadn’t even moved. He quickly pulled on a pair of black jeans and a white t-shirt, placing the hoody that he didn’t need on the bed. This seemed to break Charles out of his daze, he picked up the hoody and looked up at Erik. Erik gave a slight nod and Charles wasted no time pulling the hoody over his head. It was far too big for him, but it smelled like Erik and that was a massive comfort. Normally, Erik would have told Charles how adorable he looked, but now was definitely not the time.

Erik picked up a pair of jeans from the floor and handed them to Charles, he pulled them on and stood facing the door, not wanting to go through it. Erik appeared behind him and wrapped an arm around him as he whispered into his ear. “I will never let anybody hurt you, ever. Always remember that.” 

That gave Charles the courage to confront his step-father. He knew that as long as he didn’t lose Erik or Raven, everything would be fine.

They entered the room together, Erik was slightly behind Charles, but was completely ready to defend him if anything happened, with all his training he didn’t even have to think about it, it was automatic.

When Harold noticed that Erik was still here, his nostrils flared and Charles could see that he was breathing heavily again. His mother was sat right next to Harold, with Raven sat next to her. Raven gave him a small smile when he looked at her and she mouthed the words “I’m sorry”. Charles tried to give her a discrete smile back, but Harold noticed. 

“Don’t look at her” Harold seethed. He had always liked Raven.

The sad look on Charles’s face returned immediately and Erik would do anything to make that gorgeous smile return. He directed Charles towards the other sofa, which formed a right angle with the one that Charles’s family were sat on. Erik sat down first and Charles sat so close to him that he was near enough sat on top of him, with Erik’s body between Charles and his angry step-father.

“Explain yourself, boy” Harold didn’t even try to hide the look of disgust on his face.

Like earlier, he opened and closed his mouth a few times but couldn’t form any words. 

“EXPLAIN!” Harold boomed this time.

Charles felt Erik tense and knew he was going to say something. “I’m gay” Charles mumbled, before Erik got the chance.

“This is my errrrmm….” Charles paused, not sure whether it was too early to say the word.

“Boyfriend” Erik said for him, staring directly into Harold’s eyes.

That was when Harold flew out his seat, he would have grabbed Charles by the collar but he didn’t get the chance. Instead of Charles, he came into contact with Erik, who had reacted faster than he had thought was possible. Erik pushed Harold backwards, so he landed back in his seat, with a look of pure surprise on his face. “Don’t fucking touch me!” Harold roared, but didn’t get back up. Erik just stood there, trying to control his anger, he clenched his fists and tried to breathe slowly. He felt Charles’s hand grab onto his fist and uncurled it, allowing Charles to drag him back down into his seat by his hand. Charles didn’t let go of his hand, so Erik placed their joined hands in his lap and stared back at Harold.

“Make this man leave, boy. Then we’ll decide what to do with you.” Erik squeezed Charles’s hand. He absolutely did not want to leave, but he didn’t control Charles and would do as he wanted. Charles looked at Erik and then looked back at Harold. 

“I want him here” Charles said with certainty.

“You would choose this animal over your own family?” Harold said in an accusing tone, already trying to turn Charles’s own mother against him. 

“Mother” Charles tried to reason with her, but he didn’t get the chance.

“Enough” Harold stopped any chance Charles had of trying to explain himself, he knew he would not get the chance while he was around.

Charles’s mother looked like she wanted to cry, but she would never go against her husband.

“You heard him, he doesn’t want us here.” Harold said snidely as he stood, pulling Charles’s mother up with him.

“But I didn’t say…”

“Don’t try to deny it, this man has poisoned you. No relation of mine would live like this.” 

Now Charles was the one to look angry. “His name is Erik and I love him, if you can’t accept that then don’t, you’ve never meant anything to me anyway. Mother, Raven, I love you too but this is who I am, I hope you can accept that because I wouldn’t change even if I could.” Charles suddenly had all the confidence in the world, there was no way he was going to stand by while the man who had made his life a misery talked about Erik like that. Erik leaned over and pulled Charles’s head towards him, kissing him on the temple and whispering “I love you, too” into his ear. Now, Charles’s mood had completely changed, he knew what he wanted and if his family couldn’t accept that he was happy, that was their problem, not his.

“Disgusting” Harold retorted.

“We are leaving, don’t come by the house”. Harold snarled at Charles, as he dragged Charles’s mother towards the door.

“Raven, get in the car” he added.

“No.” 

Harold froze. Everybody in the room looked surprised, even Raven.

“WHAT?” Harold boomed and went to try and drag Raven out of the flat. Erik beat him to it and stood in front of her. “I believe she said no” he said as he crossed his arms, looming over Harold.

Harold really was a coward, he backed off straight away, pushing his wife out of the door, slamming it behind him.

Charles ran at Raven, wrapping his arms around her. “Thank you” he repeated over and over again.

Eventually, he let Raven go and took a step backwards. “I believe it is Erik you should be thanking, Charles!” Raven informed him, looking up at Erik with a massive smile on her face.

“Thank you, Erik.” She said sincerely.

“It was no problem, I just want him to be happy” Erik replied, placing a hand on Charles’s shoulder.

“Charles, I approve 1 million percent.” Raven said with a massive smile still on her face, happy that Charles had met someone that loved him as much as Erik obviously did.

Charles started to laugh then. He didn’t even know why. Maybe it was his way of getting over all of the tension, maybe it was because 15 minutes ago, Charles thought he was going to lose the two people he cared about the most, but they had both stayed. The other two shared a glance before they started to laugh too, both ecstatic that Charles was smiling again.


	10. The Sister Test

A few minutes later Erik found himself stood in the doorway of the living room, watching Charles interact with his sister. He decided to give them time to catch up, he went to make some tea, and entered the kitchen with a small smile on his face. After pouring the boiling water into two cups he realised he didn’t know how Raven liked her tea and went to ask. As soon as he entered the room he noticed two pairs of eyes on him, Charles and Raven were both looking up at him with matching grins on their faces. 

“What?” Erik asked, a bit self-consciously. It was at that point that Charles reached out and pulled Erik down by his hand, into the seat next to him. 

“I was making tea” Erik declared, still unsure about what was happening.

“Tea can wait” Charles answered, while reaching for Erik’s hand and bringing each knuckle to his lips, the mischievous look on his face had intensified. 

“You have to pass the sister test first!” Raven beamed.

“The what?” Now Erik knew why they had been grinning.

“I need to ask you some questions!” Raven explained.

Erik made a moaning sound and looked to Charles with a pout on his face.

“Don’t look at me, this wasn’t my idea!” Charles tried to make Erik feel a bit better by moving closer, so that their sides were near enough welded together, with Erik’s arm now around Charles and their right hands firmly clasped. Erik knew he was in deep when he realised he couldn’t deny Charles anything, especially when he was looking so adorable engulfed by Erik’s hoody and looking up at him with those bright blue puppy dog eyes.

Raven sat up straight in her chair and put on her serious face.

“So, you think you’re good enough for my brother?”

“Raaaaaaven” Charles whined before Erik could even react, he was hoping to avoid these kinds of questions and he didn’t want Erik to feel uncomfortable.

“It’s ok Charles” Erik looked back at Raven then with a matching serious look on his face.

“That’s for Charles to decide, but I’ll do everything in my power to try to be.” 

“Correct answer” Raven beamed. 

Charles squeezed Erik’s hand and Erik could see the huge grin out of the corner of his eye.

“Next question, errrrrrrrm, how long have you two been together?”

Erik and Charles looked at each other, both trying to calculate how long it had been since they had met in the coffee shop. “A month?” Charles whispered. “Are we going from the coffee shop or the first time we kissed?” Erik whispered back. “Coffee shop, that’s when I knew” Charles replied. “Me too” Erik whispered again, kissing below Charles’s ear at the same time.

“About a month” Erik confirmed.

“You two are adorable” was Raven’s unexpected reply. Erik and Charles both had a matching blush.

“Ok, boxers or briefs?” Raven asked, with a cheeky grin on her face.

Erik could hear and feel Charles trying to contain laughter.

“Ummmm, Boxers?” Erik said in a questioning tone, not sure if there was meant to be a correct answer.

“Bottom or top?” That was when Charles completely lost it, totally unable to control his laughter, Erik’s face turned a bright shade of red and Raven looked very pleased with herself because of that.

“I am not answering that!” Erik whined, pulling Charles back so he could bury his face in his hair, although Charles was still trying to control his laughter, he managed to mouth “sorry”. He did not look sorry at all.

“Fine, do you promise to always keep my brother safe?” 

“I promise” Erik was serious again, he wanted them both to know that he really meant it.

“Who else knows?” Raven directed this question at the both of them.

“Just Erik’s flatmate, Emma knows something is going on but we haven’t actually told her, she seems to hate Erik for some reason.”

Raven nodded in understanding “you look like her ex” she told Erik.

“Well that doesn’t excuse the way she has acted” Charles still hadn’t completely forgiven Emma for the things she had said about Erik.

“I’ll talk her round” Raven smiled, she liked Erik and she liked how happy and content Charles looked even more. 

“Thank you” Erik and Charles both said at the same time.

“Right, I have no more questions right now, I’ll try to think of more though” Raven grinned. “Did you say something about tea?” She added. 

Erik went off to the kitchen after enquiring how Raven liked hers and brought back the tea, which he had to completely remake.

They settled in front of the TV, Charles had already come to terms with what had happened with his mother and step-father, right now he couldn’t be happier.

They all came to the decision that Raven was going to stay here for a week until she found somewhere of her own, she certainly wasn’t going back home, she was also going to talk to Emma tomorrow and was sure she could make her friend see sense. Then Charles was going to tell his friends, he felt a bit nervous, but one look at Erik, who was currently deep in concentration, trying to fish his broken biscuit out of his tea, while looking like an adorable, pouting friendly giant, and he knew it was what he wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one is so short and took so long, I've been so busy recently, I'll try to do the next one faster!


	11. The Morning After

The next morning Erik was woken by the very loud, obnoxious music that was coming from the direction of the kitchen. He groaned in annoyance and wondered how on earth Charles was still asleep. Erik was laid on his back with Charles’s head over his heart, the music must have been getting through to Charles though because he had started to stir. Erik thought that Charles was even more adorable when he was sleepy, the first thing he always did when he was about to wake up was nuzzle Erik, just like a cat would. That was exactly what he was doing now, while Erik played with his messy hair.

A few minutes later Erik heard Charles take a deep breath, he raised his head to look at Erik, although he was squinting. Then he seemed to notice the music, he pressed his face into Erik’s chest and muttered something unintelligible. “What was that?” Erik whispered, not wanting to break the atmosphere in the room. “I’d forgotten what a pain Raven can be.” Erik just laughed, until Charles sat up and did what Erik can only describe as am impression of a meerkat.

At that moment, there was a soft knock at the door. Charles and Erik looked at each other with matching suspicious looks. Charles laid back down and pulled the covers back over them, completely ignoring the door. Raven seemed to have other ideas and continued to knock, getting progressively louder. “WHAT IS IT, RAVEN?” Charles eventually shouted, although it was slightly muffled due to the fact that his face was currently pressed into the arch of Erik’s neck. 

Raven took that as a cue to enter, Charles was just about to protest when he noticed the tray of food that Raven was carrying. “What’s this?” Raven placed the tray down on the bed and revealed a huge breakfast, enough for two people. “Full English, my favourite” Erik stated with a huge grin on his face. Charles beamed at his sister. “If I was wearing any clothes right now, I’d hug you!” “Too much information, Charles.” Raven sighed as she hurried out of the room, although Charles saw a brief look of amusement on her face as she closed the door behind her. “Thank you!” Charles and Erik both shouted at the same time.

After a few minutes of silent eating, Charles finally spoke, “I wonder what she’s up to, she’s never this helpful.” Erik shrugged, he couldn’t really comment on the behaviour, since he’d only known Raven one day, he didn’t know if it was out of character or not.

Eventually, Charles and Erik surfaced and made their way to the kitchen, where Raven was doing the washing up. “Wow, first breakfast and now you’re cleaning up after yourself!” Charles laughed while placing the now empty tray on the counter.

Raven turned to them then and the look on her face made Charles anxious. “What is it, Raven?” He moved towards her and placed his hand on her shoulder in a reassuring manner. “I spoke to Emma on the phone this morning.” Charles head flopped forward like a child’s does when they are sad. “She didn’t come round to Erik then?” “Charles, I think I might have made it worse, she wants to talk to you at work tomorrow, and it didn’t sound good.” “What do you mean ‘talk’?” Charles was confused, what exactly was there to talk about? “I really don’t know, Charles, she wouldn’t listen to what I had to say, every time I mentioned Erik she just got more annoyed and eventually said she needed to ‘have a word with you’, whatever that means”. Charles looked defeated, why did things always have to be so difficult. Before he could get too upset he was enveloped by Erik’s strong arms, he felt Erik’s lips on his forehead then. “It’ll be fine” Erik reassured him.

They were about to watch a film when Erik got a text. He immediately jumped out of his seat and put on his shoes faster than Charles thought was humanly possible. “I’ve got to go, I’ll text you later.” He placed a kiss to Charles’s head and whispered ‘love you’ into his ear. With that he was gone, Charles didn’t even get the chance to say it back. Raven looked at Charles with a bewildered facial expression “what was that all about?” “It’s his job, it’s happened a few times now, he’ll send me a text soon to explain, plus he always feels REALLY bad about leaving so suddenly.” Charles said the last bit with a mischievous look on his face, this resulted in Raven throwing a cushion at Charles’s head. “Charles! There’s just some things a sister does not need to know!” “Hey, I just meant he does everything that I ask the next day, I don’t know what you were thinking” Charles still had the look on his face, knowing fine well what Raven had thought. “Seriously, Charles, that’s basically the same thing! You think Erik wouldn’t do it on the kitchen table if you asked?” Now it was Charles’s turn to look embarrassed, although that was soon replaced by a thoughtful look. “I don’t even want to know what you are thinking right now” Raven sighed and went to make a cup of tea, so that Charles could not hear her laughing. Charles just chuckled, but definitely did not disagree. 

The whole day passed and Charles did not receive a text from Erik, he thought it was odd but put it to the back of his mind. He went to bed early as he had work in the morning, he knew he was going to need all the energy and willpower possible to get through whatever ‘talk’ Emma had in mind.


	12. Scheming Colleagues

The alarm went off in the morning and Charles hit the snooze button without thinking. All through the night he’d been tossing and turning, unable to get to sleep for any long period of time. After hitting the snooze button 4 times, Charles caught sight of the time on his phone as he went to hit it again. Charles never used the snooze button, so when he saw that he now had 20 minutes to get to work, he jumped out of bed in a panic. He shoved on his uniform, not even realising that he had his t-shirt on inside-out. He picked up the first hoody he saw, which just so happened to be Erik’s, and pulled it over his head, loving the fact that it still smelt very strongly of the man. He quickly grabbed a cereal bar, put on his shoes and jogged the whole way to work.

When he got there, Emma was sat at a table talking to Sean, Alex and Azazel, he couldn’t hear what the conversation was about, but he could tell that it was very intense. Charles was sure that he was in fact the subject of the conversation though. It wasn’t hard to figure this out, when Emma looked up and saw that it was Charles that had entered the coffee shop, they had all stopped talking and the others had gone off to actually do their jobs, all saying ‘hello’ on their way past. Charles didn’t miss the look of disdain on her face when she saw the hoody he was wearing, thankfully it was covering the mark on his neck, he was working the store cupboard today, and he’d take it off once he got in there. He made his way over to his colleague, wanting to get this ‘talk’ over with as soon as possible.

“Raven said you wanted to talk to me” Charles stated, without his customary smile or enthusiasm. “Hi Charles! Oh that, that was just an errrrm….. misunderstanding, but I do need to tell you something” From the look on her face, Charles knew that she was lying, but he couldn’t bring himself to question her. “Work night out tonight! You have to come, meet us at 10 at the usual place.” She said all of this without actually looking at Charles, instead she busied herself with pretending to clean the table. “Ok….” Charles didn’t really want to go, but he also didn’t want to give Emma any reason to moan at him again. “I hope you’ve got your uniform on under that…” Emma pointed at the hoody he was wearing as if it was the cause of all the pain on earth. “Yeah.. yes I do, I was in a rush this morning…” Charles tried to explain. “Erik’s fault I’m guessing.” Emma looked annoyed at having to use his name. “No actually…” “Hmmm he’s got you lying for him already” Emma interrupted before Charles could finish what he was saying. Now Charles really was annoyed with her, he decided that if this was how it was going to be, and it looked like Emma wasn’t going to let it go, then he’d invite Erik tonight and have a good time regardless of what anybody else thought.

Charles made his way to the store room, he was tired and was absolutely not sulking, at least that was what he would say if anybody was to see him. After about an hour of taking stock, Charles felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. It was a text from an unknown number.

_Hi Charles, sorry I haven’t replied before now, I broke my phone, the idiot we were chasing had to go and jump into the River Thames, and of course I had to follow. I had to go to your flat to get your number off Raven. Anyway, I’m really sorry, sure I can make it up to you later ;) How did it go with Emma? This is my new number btw, see you later. Love you. x_

This was all that was needed to put Charles back in a happy mood, reading the last two words over and over again with a huge smile on his face. He quickly replied.

_Hello Erik, I was beginning to worry! Emma was acting really strange this morning, she’s invited me on a work night out tonight at 10pm. Pretty please with cherries on top can you come with me? I’m sure she’s up to something but I can’t figure it out, I may need a bodyguard: P Love you too, Erik. Charles x_

_Sounds suspicious, I will be there to protect you my little Charles :P I’ll have to meet you there though, see you later x_

Charles sent the address of the club to Erik with a smile on his face. He didn’t see anybody else for the rest of his shift, of course that made him more suspicious, but with everything that had happened recently, he chose to focus on the fact that he’d get to see Erik all dressed up again tonight.

Little did he know, Emma was counting on him inviting Erik, and she had big plans for the night. She’d spent most of the morning convincing Sean, Alex and Azazel that Charles’s ‘friend’ was no good, and that it was for Charles’s own good that he wasn’t ‘hanging around’ anymore. Of course they had no idea that she was lying, or that Erik was actually Charles’s boyfriend.

Meanwhile, Erik was stuck in a car with James, again. Although this time they were in a high-speed chase. “I swear, if this women hurts Charles… he’s gone through a lot these past few days” Erik was saying this to James while swerving in and out of traffic. “CAR!” James was literally clinging onto his seat, he was not a big fan of Erik’s driving at the best of times, and especially not when Erik was this distracted. “I know she’s up to something” Erik didn’t even seem to be phased by the speed they were travelling. “Well I guess you’ll find out toni… CAAAAAAR!” Erik couldn't help but chuckle at his partner, but the uneasy feeling he felt about tonight was still present.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finally the Easter holidays! Wooop!


	13. Unanticipated Events

Charles arrived at the club early, he actually quite liked this place and had many happy memories here. It was a large modern looking place with high ceilings, a circular bar in the middle and neon lights lighting the place from the ceilings. He had taken his time to get ready, and was wearing black slim fitting jeans, black shoes and a snug fitting short sleeved purple shirt, he’d even bothered to put a brush through his hair! He thought he’d arrived first as he hadn’t received a text off any of his work colleagues, so he made his way through the crowd to the bar. He was in no rush, so he turned his back on the bar and leant against it to watch what was going on around him. As the rowdy crowd were swaying, openings were appearing though it. Through one Charles could see Emma talking to a man, he was around the same height as Charles, with similar looking hair and fashion sense. She could see Emma speaking into his ear and pointing in a direction away from Charles, although he couldn’t make out what they were looking at.

Charles decided to remain where he was, he’d go over to Emma when the others arrived. He watched the man walk away from her and his eyes followed him through the crowd. Eventually he stopped in front of another man and put his hand on the man’s bicep, causing him to turn. Charles could see now that the man was Erik, he had his phone in his hand, probably texting Charles to say he had arrived. Now Charles was intrigued, he looked back at Emma and noticed that she’d followed the man, but had made sure to stay hidden from them by the crowd. The man still had his hand on Erik’s arm, and Charles had to admit he did not like that one bit, but he wanted to see how this played out. The man suddenly threw himself at Erik, who stumbled back in surprise, his hands were all over him and Erik looked more like he wanted to murder him than reciprocate the touching. Charles could tell that Erik had been stunned by the act, because his reactions were usually very fast, he regained his composure though when the man’s face got very close to his own. He placed a hand on the strangers shoulder and pushed him backwards, keeping his arm there so the man could not touch him anymore. Charles could not make out what Erik was saying, but he did not look very happy. 

Charles couldn’t help but laugh, he realised how strange he probably looked to others, as he was still stood on his own. He looked back towards Emma’s direction and saw her walking away from where she had been stood, looking at the screen on a camera with a grin on her face. She was now with another man, who was about Erik’s height and build, he even had the same hairstyle. Now it all clicked into place, this was Emma’s plan. She had told the guy, who she thought Erik might like, as he looked like Charles, to go over to Erik and try to make it look like they were together, so she could stand back and take photographs. Of course, she didn’t know Charles was even here, never mind that he had been a witness to the whole thing. Her plan had completely backfired though, Charles knew he could trust Erik, he didn’t need any evidence, but he had it now nonetheless. 

Charles looked at his phone and realised that he had no signal, which meant that Erik would have no luck texting him. He pushed off the bar and was about to make his way over to Erik, who was clearly now looking around for him, when somebody appeared in front of him. “Hello there, can I buy you a drink?” Charles was about to say no when the man pulled him around so that Charles was facing the bar and the man’s chest was against his back. He could feel the man’s hand’s on his arms. He somehow knew this was part of Emma’s plan, perhaps she was hoping that Erik would see the position Charles was in and think that it was his own doing. He tried to shove the man away with his elbow, but he was pinned. 

Suddenly, the pressure disappeared. Charles swung round to see what had happened, and was met with a very angry looking Erik. He was relieved to notice that Erik’s anger seemed to be directed at the stranger. Erik had his collar in a tight grip and pulled him close. “Touch him without his permission again and you will have never regretted anything more in your entire life.” Erik whispered it into his ear but still managed to sound frightening. The man scuttled off with his tail between his legs, disappearing into the crowd.

Erik turned around to look back at Charles with the annoyed look still on his face. Charles opened his mouth to speak but he couldn’t get out a full sentence. “Erik! He was… I wasn’t… He… I..” Charles was visibly starting to panic. Erik silenced him by pulling him into his chest and rubbing circles into his lower back. “Shhhh, I saw the whole thing, plus I trust you, Charles, calm down.” Charles let out a huge breath that he hadn’t even realised he had been holding. He took a step back and just stared at Erik in awe. Erik was wearing black jeans and black shoes, a white shirt with the sleeved rolled up to his elbows and a black waistcoat. “You look bloody gorgeous!” Charles couldn’t help but let Erik know. “Nothing compared to you, Charles” Erik returned, pulling Charles back in so that he could pull him into a long, passionate kiss, uncaring about their surroundings.

When they pulled apart, Erik didn’t let go of Charles’s hand, he pulled him into the same position that the stranger had earlier, so that Charles was trapped between the bar and Erik’s strong arms. This time, however, Charles was very pleased with the position, and leant back into Erik, who had his left hand in Charles’s left trouser pocket. Erik realised how possessive he probably looked, but right now he truly was ready to maim anybody that tried to touch his Charles. Once they had ordered their drinks, Charles spun around in Erik’s arms, so that his back was once again leaning against the sticky bar. “So this was Emma’s big plan then?” Erik leant forward towards Charles’s ear so that he could be heard over the loud music. Charles chuckled and explained what he had saw earlier. Erik shuck his head and was visibly annoyed again. “So at some point she’s going to come over and show you photos of me ‘cheating on you’… wow.” 

“I’m done with her now after this” There must have been something in Charles’s voice that gave away how he was feeling, as Erik put his hands on Charles’s waist and went to whisper in his ear. “You’ll always have me, Charles. Want to dance?” This definitely cheered Charles up, he loved dancing. He grabbed Erik’s hand and led him towards the dancefloor through the crowd. The song was quite a fast one so they began by dancing with Charles facing away from Erik, with Erik’s hands all over him. Charles covered Erik’s hands with his own and leant his head back on the taller man’s shoulder so that he could kiss him.

By this point, Sean, Alex and Azazel had all arrived, and were currently sat in a booth with Emma, watching the two enamoured men dancing. “Wait! Erik is Charles’s boyfriend?” Sean wasn’t particularly surprised, he just thought that Charles would have told him. “Not for long” Emma uttered under her breath. 

They had been dancing for a while now and Charles had spotted the others in the booth. He decided that he’d have to bite the bullet eventually and shouted to Erik that they should probably go and see the others. “I’ll go get us another drink, meet you at the table.” Erik replied into Charles’s ear, nibbling the top of it before he went, causing Charles to giggle.

At the booth, Emma was sat between Azazel and Alex, with Sean sitting opposite them. Charles made his way over and ushered Sean to move to the end of the booth, so that he could sit in the middle, leaving room for Erik on the end. “Hi!” He tried to sound cheerful, but he was pretty sure he knew what was coming. Emma did her best impression of a sad face, while the others did actually look uncomfortable. “Charles, there’s something that I… that we have to show you.” The pained look remained on her face as she fished the camera out of her pocket. She clicked a few buttons on the camera and put it on the table in front of Charles. “I’m really sorry, Charles.” Sure enough, the camera screen showed a photo of Erik and the stranger, with their faces very close together. Charles couldn’t help but smiling, which was obviously not the reaction the others had been expecting. 

“There’s more, Charles” Emma said as she leant over to click the arrow button on the camera. Charles was full on grinning now. “I never thought you’d stoop this low, Emma” At that point, Erik returned with the drinks, he sat next to Charles, placing the drinks next to the camera and putting his left arm around Charles. He looked down at the camera and then looked at Charles’s grin. He couldn’t help his laughter then, and Charles joined in, hiding his face by pushing it into Erik’s shoulder. “Charles, I don’t think you understand…” Emma began to say but was interrupted by Erik. “Oh, I think you underestimate his intelligence” He said this with a smug look on his face. “Emma, I saw the whole thing.” Charles added. “Then you saw what he did!” “No Emma, the whole thing” Charles placed emphasis on the word ‘whole’ and then Emma understood. “I don’t know what you have against Erik, Emma, but he’s the best man I have ever met, and I love him, your tricks are not going to work.” Emma had the decency to look sheepish, but opened her mouth to protest. “Save it, Emma. I thought we were friends. Obviously not.”

It was at that point that Emma stood, without a word, pushed her way past Alex, and disappeared into the crowd. Erik squeezed Charles’s hand under the table and Charles looked up at him, giving him his best smile to assure his boyfriend that he was fine. “I am so confused.” Sean admitted. “Same” Alex added. Charles noticed that they all wore the same expression as they looked at Erik, obviously unsure about what to think of him. “I don’t know what Emma has told you about Erik” Charles started but was interrupted by Azazel. “Nothing nice.” “It’s all lies” Charles assured them in a firm voice. “Yeah, I’m starting to get the impression that she hasn’t been completely honest…” Sean could see that Erik and Charles were holding hands under the table, and the way Erik’s arm was wrapped around Charles in a protective manner told Sean everything that he needed to know about Erik.

“I think we need to start over.” Sean stated. “I’m Sean.” He held his hand out towards Erik. At first Erik looked unsure whether this was another trick, but when he saw the smile on Charles’s face, he held his hand out and shook Sean’s hand. “Erik” he added. Alex and Azazel went through the same procedure and the mood in the booth had completely changed, now they all looked happy.

“I’ll go get the next round” Azazel stood and disappeared into the crowd. While he was away, Charles caught up with his friends, he hadn’t really talked to them recently with everything that had happened. When Azazel returned, Erik and Charles explained everything that had happened with Emma since they had met in the coffee shop, they listened intently and Erik was delighted to see that they all looked equally as annoyed at Emma’s actions as Erik felt.

They continued drinking for hours after that, playing drinking games and talking. Emma never came back to their table and they all agreed that she’d probably given up and gone home. At half 3 in the morning, Charles began to lean heavily into Erik, in fact he was basically snuggled into him. “I think I’d better get him home” Erick chuckled as he realised that Charles was falling asleep. Erik stood, scooping Charles up so that he was cuddled into Erik’s side, with his arms wrapped around him. “See you all another time.” Erik said to the remaining three, and laughed when he noticed that Sean was definitely taking photos of drunk Charles.


	14. Another Morning After

Charles was awoken the next morning by Erik shifting in his sleep. Charles and Erik were both lying on their sides, with Charles’s back pressed against Erik’s chest, Charles was currently pinned down by a strong arm around his waist. He could feel Erik’s breath against the back of his neck and he couldn’t help but smile, despite the headache that came with the hangover. Memories from the night before were coming back from him, but he chose to concentrate on the ones from after Emma had left.

He was lying with his eyes closed, but he felt the vibration of his phone on the bed. He moved as little as possible so he didn’t disturb Erik, and found his phone on the edge of the bed. He held it to his face and had to squint in order to see the screen. The name on the screen made him freeze, it was the last thing that he had been expecting. Why was his mother texting him?

_Hello, Charles. I’m sorry that I haven’t contacted you before now. I knew that you deserved a better Mother, so I held off sending this text until I could be exactly that. I know you and Raven have told me this for years, but after I left you that day when we saw Erik, I knew that I needed to stand up to Harold, and now I finally have. I have missed you so much son. I told him that we were coming to visit you, and if he couldn’t be nice for the whole stay that I would leave him. I hope this will be ok with you. x_

Charles was still frozen, he dropped the phone on the bed. At first he didn’t know what to think, he was happy that his mother had finally stood up to Harold, but he didn’t want to see that man ever again. He was still contemplating his reply when Erik began to stir, the arm on his waist tightened and then the pressure was gone. The lips on the back of his neck told Charles that Erik was now awake. “Morning” Erik’s voice was rough. “Good morning, Erik” Charles replied, without his usual enthusiasm. Erik immediately sat up, worried. “What’s the matter?” Instead of replying, Charles placed the phone in Erik’s hand.

After he had read it, he looked up at Charles. “What are you going to reply?” He asked.

“I don’t know, I love my mother and I want to her be happy, and Harold does make her happy. But, I don’t want to endure his presence for one make second”. “It’s your choice, Charles. If he does come, I’ll be here for you.” Erik reassured him. Charles started laughing then, Erik was startled but couldn’t help but smile. “Oh, we can have fun with this.” Charles said as though it explained his laughter. “I don’t understand” “Well if he truly deserves another chance, he will be nice, no matter what we do.” Charles said the last part with a mischievous smile on his face, finally giving away what he was thinking. Erik now understood.

“Oh I do love your mind, Charles.” Erik said this as he pushed Charles down into a lying position. Starting with his temples, he kissed every inch of Charles’s face, taking extra time with his lips. Erik could feel against his leg how much Charles wanted this, and took his kisses lower, trailing down his chest and stomach. When he got to his waistband, Charles moaned and thrust his hips upwards, needing the friction. “You want this?” Erik needed to hear Charles say it, he also loved teasing him. “Please, Erik” Charles looked directly into to Erik’s eyes. Erik yanked Charles’s boxers down and grinned. He wanted to tease Charles for longer but he did not have that much self-control when it came to Charles. He took Charles in his mouth and loved the long moan the man elicited. Setting an even pace, it wasn’t long before Charles’s moans were getting louder, and his knuckles were turning white as he grabbed at the sheets. “Erik! Erik I’m…” Erik quickened his pace and Charles moaned loudly as he came. Charles lay with his eyes closed for a few seconds, but grabbed for Erik when he felt him move away. He pushed Erik down so their positions were reversed, and removed his boxers too. He repaid the favour, loving the deep moans that he could get from Erik if he moved his tongue just so. Erik was trying to be much quieter than Charles had been, but he wasn’t having much luck. He near enough shouted Charles’s name as he came and pulled Charles down onto his chest as he calmed his breathing.

He played with Charles’s hair for a while and whispered “I love you”, although he wasn’t even sure that Charles was still awake. Charles moved his head so that his chin was resting on Erik’s chest and whispered “I love you, too.” He put his head back down and they both slept for a while longer, only waking when Charles’s phone vibrated on the bedside table.

_I really need an answer, Charles. We will be coming in 4 days if you say yes. x_

Charles quickly replied.

_Of course you can come, Mother. I only hope that Harold will show that he deserves you. I look forward to seeing you. Charles x_

Erik started to run his fingers though Charles’s hair when he had finished texting. “I love it when you do that,” Charles almost purred. “I know” Erik chuckled, increasing the pressure slightly. “Shower?” Erik asked, he’d be happy if he never had to move again, but he was very hungry. “mmmmmmmm” Charles moaned, hiding his face in Erik’s chest, he didn’t want to move either, but was also hungry. Eventually, Charles sat up, Erik followed and Charles dragged him by the hand into the en-suite bathroom.

They were in the shower for far longer than needed, it may have had something to do with a repeat of what had happened on the bed. When they finally surfaced, Charles put on one of Erik’s clean gym t-shirts, which was far too big for him, he loves how all of Erik’s clothes smell like him, but he also loves the way Erik looks at him while he is wearing them.

When they made their way into the kitchen, they could hear Raven moving around. Charles had completely forgotten that Raven was even here, and could only hope that she had been asleep this morning. “Good afternoon” She sounded far too happy, and Charles knew exactly what that grin meant. “Sounded like a good morning too…” Raven said while grinning into her cup of coffee, trying not to laugh. “nooooooo” Charles tried to hide his face in his hands, he felt a hand on his lower back and could hear Erik chuckling. Charles turned around to hide his face in the crook of Erik’s neck. “You’re a secret agent spy… thing, make her go away.” Erik laughed and hugged Charles.

They eventually sat down to eat lunch, miraculously neither one of them was sporting a hangover, and Raven seemed to be in a merciful mood as she hadn’t mentioned the morning again. Charles suddenly remembered the texts off his mother and began to explain everything to Raven while showing her the texts.

“So this morning was just practice for what you are going to make Harold endure? Because I’m telling you now, these walls are pretty thin, Charles.” She was grinning again now, obviously trying to wind her brother up. “I’m sure I can come up with a few more ideas” Erik finally joined the conversation. “ooooo no we are not talking about this” Charles tried to put a stop to the conversation before it even started. “For a start, Erik, you’re going to need to bring more clothes, Charles, you are absolutely wearing his clothes for the whole visit.” Now Charles loved that idea. “And you’ve both got to be very handsy too” Raven was full on giggling now, imagining her step-fathers reaction. Charles stood and dragged Erik into the living room, trying to hide the grin on his face.

A few minutes later, Raven joined them. They all agreed that the visit was going to be very interesting indeed.


	15. Family Affairs

The day before the impending visit Charles received a text off his mother.

_Harold has invited his brothers George and William to come with us, I think he’s really trying to show us that we are part of his family, Charles. See you tomorrow._ x

Charles showed Erik the text, Erik just raised his eyebrows and waited for Charles to give his opinion.

“Trying to… more like intimidation tactics, I bet he thinks that if there’s three of them, you won’t show up.”

Erik just chuckled and pushed Charles backwards on the bed “more fun for us then” he said as he undid the zip on Charles’s trousers. Charles just laughed back and lifted his hips to speed up the process.

**~**

Charles’s alarm was set for 8am. His mother, Harold, William and George were meant to arrive anytime between 9 and half past 9. Erik awoke at about 10 to 8 and turned the alarm off so that he could wake Charles up in his own way. He let him sleep until 8 and then started to nibble at his neck, exactly where the last love bite he had left had been, with the intention of making another. He tickled Charles’s stomach and he began to stir. He squirmed and rolled onto his back, finally opening his eyes. Erik took the opportunity to make the mark of his neck as big and bright as possible, Charles certainly wasn’t complaining. In fact, Charles was very happy about the situation. Eventually, he gently tugged on Erik’s hair so that he had to look at him. “We. Need. To. Get. Up. And. Get. Ready.” He said each word between a kiss placed on Erik’s lips. Erik whined but relented, climbing out of bed.

Raven chose that exact moment to knock on the door, Erik hurried over and placed his foot behind it while peering round the door so that only his face was visible. Both men were completely naked and they did not want any more Raven related embarrassing moments.

“Just checking you’re awake” Raven had clearly already been in the shower and Erik could smell bacon. “Just trying to get the lazy arse out of bed” Erik fake whispered. “Hey! I believe getting ready was my idea.” Erik playfully shook his head at Raven and she walked away laughing.

When Erik turned around, Charles was pouting. Charles thought that Erik was going to sit back down on the bed, instead, he took the opportunity to pick up an unsuspecting Charles, bridal style. “ERIK!” Charles might have shouted but it was obvious that he wasn’t really annoyed by the situation, as he made no attempt to escape Erik’s arms.

Erik deposited Charles in the shower and remained in it with him, closing the shower door. The feel of the cold wall on his back made Charles shoot forward, hitting Erik’s chest. Erik turned the water on and laughed at Charles. At first, the shower was completely innocent, but when Charles’s hands started to wonder, things got more heated. “We don’t have much time” Erik stated, although there was absolutely no conviction behind his words, and the moment that Charles dropped to his knees, his own words had been completely forgotten. Of course, Erik had to and wanted to repay the favour, making what was meant to be a quick shower, not so quick. Charles was leaning back against the shower wall and breathing heavily when Erik turned the water off.

They were now pushed for time. Erik wrapped a towel around his waist and realised that he’d left his bag with all of his clothes in it in the kitchen. Charles had sat down on the bed and was drying his hair, instead of bothering Charles, Erik made sure that the towel was wrapped tightly and told him that he was going to get his bag. He walked into the kitchen without really paying too much attention to his surroundings, and froze when he realised what he’d just walked into. Charles’s mother, Harold, George, William and Raven were all sat around the kitchen table eating breakfast.

Raven was clearly amused, she was visibly shaking trying to hide her laughter, and was staring at the plate while pushing her food around with a fork. Charles’s mother wore a neutral expression, but Erik suspected that she wasn’t overly happy with the situation, and the way she breathed in heavily, averting her eyes confirmed his thoughts, she’d obviously been hoping that Erik would not be here at all. George and Harold wore matching expressions, anger with a blend of disgust, while William didn’t look phased, and carried on reading his newspaper. Erik was expecting an argument but instead, Charles’s mother placed her hand over Harold’s and they all averted their eyes. As he picked up his bag, Erik could see that Harold was tightly gripping his chair so hard that his knuckles were turning white. “Oh, this is going to be interesting” Erik thought as he hurried out of the room.

When he returned to Charles’s room, he closed the door and leant back on it, releasing a long breath of air. “What’s wrong?” Charles was now wearing Erik’s boxers and a pair of his own socks, but was still sat on the bed. “They have already arrived.”

Charles took one more look at Erik and burst out laughing. “You look traumatised!” Charles said between fits of laughter, making his way over to Erik to pull him further into the room by his hand. “That was a traumatic experience, I’m not wearing any clothes, Charles!” Erik did see the humour in the situation, but he was not about to admit it.

When Charles finally stopped laughing, he fished through Erik’s bag for a t-shirt. He chose one of Erik’s work ones from when he was training. It had Lehnsherr written on the breast and also in huge writing across the back, and like all of Erik’s shirts, it was far too big for Charles, but that didn’t bother him at all. The mark on Charles’s neck was just hidden by the collar of the shirt, much to Erik’s disappointment.

When they were finally ready, Charles stood at the door at took a deep breath, taking Erik’s hand. They made their way into the kitchen, where the others were. When Charles entered, his mother jumped up and enveloped him in a hug. Charles hugged her back and whispered into her ear that he had missed her, earning him a hair ruffle and a small smile from her. As Charles greeted his guests, Erik made his way to the frying pan to make breakfast for himself and Charles. He could almost feel the stares of Harold and George but he didn’t want to start any kind of argument, so he chose to pretend that he hadn’t noticed.

Charles had noticed that there was only one chair left, and it was between Harold and George. When Charles looked up, he met eyes with George, who seemed to be daring him to say something. The plan had obviously been to exclude Erik, so that they could brainwash Charles into making him leave, probably permanently.

When Erik turned around with the plates in his hands, he noticed the problem. He was just about to suggest that he’d go eat in the living room when Charles appeared behind him, directly him into the remaining chair. Erik placed the plates on the table and was going to protest, but was silenced by an innocent looking Charles. “Oh, would you look at that, there’s no chairs free, we’ll just have to make do”. With that, he plonked himself down in Erik’s lap, intertwining their fingers and pulling their hands so that they were on top on the table. Erik proceeded to eat his breakfast with his left hand, while making a point to rub circles into Charles’s right hand with his thumb.

Erik could see that Harold looked completely shocked and annoyed that his plan to intimidate them had not worked. Harold was breathing heavily and closed his eyes to compose himself, George had opened his mouth and was clearly going to say something when Harold cleared his throat and tried to discretely shake his head. William still hadn’t looked away from his newspaper, when he did, all he said was “could you pass the salt please?” to Erik. Well it was a start, somebody had actually acknowledged Erik, and it hadn’t involved shouting or violence. He was passed the salt and Charles gave him a massive smile when their eyes met. William had always been his favourite of the brothers, he was the youngest and the only one that actually treated Charles like an adult. He had been in the army but had to leave due to injury, Charles thought that this was probably where he got his patience from, Charles had never seen him angry.

“How have you been, Charles?” Charles’s mother hadn’t even acknowledged Erik’s presence yet.

“I’ve… we’ve been great” He looked up at Erik. “Erik’s been looking after me, haven’t you, Erik?” Charles had a huge smile on his face as he looked back over to his mother, she couldn’t help but smile back, she really didn’t dislike Erik and was glad that Charles was happy, but she wanted the visit to go down without any arguments. “Yep” Erik popped the p and held up some of his bacon near Charles’s mouth. Charles made a show of taking the bacon straight out of Erik’s fingers with his mouth and he just might have lingered there, licking the end of Erik’s finger.

That seemed to be all Harold could stomach for the moment, he pushed his plate away from him and stood up promptly. Erik tensed as he expected Harold to make a move on either him or Charles, but instead he marched out of the room and into the living room. He was closely followed by George and then Charles’s mother. William seemed to realise that people had left the room and slowly walked out, his face still buried in the newspaper. Raven was smirking at the couple “Oh you are the devil, Erik Lehnsherr” She giggled and Charles and Erik joined in the laughter.

“Do you think we should tone it down a little?” Erik asked, he didn’t want to purposely start an argument. “Oh no, 18 years of misery that man has put us through, he’s not getting out of it that easily, besides, if he’s sticking around, he’s going to have to learn to deal with it.” Raven said this as she placed all of the plates into the sink and went to join their guests. Erik and Charles silently agreed and continued eating their breakfast, although Charles moved into his own seat so that Erik could have the use of both arms.

When they finally finished, and they were in no rush, Erik followed Charles into the living room. There was no seats left so Charles pulled the coffee table out of the way and sat in front of the TV, in between Erik’s legs, facing the rest of the people in the room.

“Why don’t we go out and do something as a family today?” Harold said to nobody in particular, and placed emphasis on the word family. Charles saw the smirk on Georges face as Harold spoke. They clearly wanted Erik to leave but he was Charles’s family now, and was here to stay. Charles thought two can play at this game.

“Erik and I would love to!” Charles replied with enthusiasm. Raven was grinning as she spoke up. “We should go to the new zoo that has opened up, it’s got tigers apparently!” Her mother heard her enthusiasm and agreed that it would be a good idea, Harold and George looked less impressed but agreed too. Charles pushed his head back and whispered in Erik’s ear while the others were talking about travel arrangements and directions “This should be fun.” They both started laughing but tried to keep their volume to a minimum, when they looked up they noticed they were being watched by William.

Instead of looking annoyed like his brothers, he instead mouthed “I’m going in your car,” he had his eyes wide open and looked as though he’d already had enough of his brothers. Charles and Erik could understand that feeling, so Erik nodded his head.

It had been decided. Erik, Charles and William would go in Erik’s car, while Raven, George, Harold and Charles’s mother would go in the other.


	16. The Family Outing

The others had already packed the car and were ready to set off when Charles went to change his t-shirt, choosing a thin red short sleeved one. He had to fish through the mess on the bed (which had been created by Erik moving all of Charles’s clothes off the floor) to find his phone. When he finally made it back to the front door where Erik and William had been waiting, they were in deep conversation about gym equipment. Charles was happy to see that William liked Erik and stood down the hallway watching them for a few seconds before they started laughing. “Charles, you do realise we can see you, don’t you?” Erik had an amused expression on his face when he met Charles’s eyes. Charles just pouted at him, causing the other two men to laugh even more. 

They finally got into Erik’s car and set off, with Charles sitting in the back, he wanted to give William and Erik the opportunity to talk, as it seemed he was the only one of Charles’s family, besides Raven, that was going to make the effort. When they got to the zoo they parked up, Erik opened Charles’s door before he got the chance to himself, and waited for him to exit. “Thank you” Charles beamed up at Erik, who intertwined their fingers as a form of reply. 

When they finally saw the others, who had already gone inside, they found Charles’s mother and Raven gawping at a huge teddy bear, which could only be won if the person was strong enough to hit the bell in the hammer game. As they walked over, Raven was taking her go, she only managed to get about a quarter of the way up, winning a consolation prize instead. They reached them and explained what had taken so long, (“blame Charles!” Erik had said, causing Charles to playfully prod him in his side with his free hand. This resulted in Erik grabbing Charles’s finger and using it to prod Charles back, causing Charles to laugh very loudly), they were joined by Harold and George, who had been to the toilet. Erik saw the way Harold rolled his eyes when he saw Charles’s hand in his and decided that he’d do one better, so he stood behind Charles and circled his waist with his arms. 

Raven was ranting and raving about how much she ‘needed’ the teddy, to the point that Harold decided that he would easily win it for her. He paid the money and grabbed the hammer, turning to smirk at the group before hitting the pad with it. The lights indicated that he had got just over half way, he seemed to be shocked and disgusted by this and accused the man taking the money that he had rigged it. The man opened the box with the settings and assured him that he had not done anything. “I wasn’t even trying to be honest, I’ll do it this time.” Charles couldn’t help but chuckle under his breath, he knew he was lying but chose to remain quiet, knowing that he was about to be exposed anyway. As Charles had predicted, he got to the same point, threw the hammer down and stated that the game was unwinnable and a waste of time.

Charles saw the sad look on Raven’s face and wanted to replace it with a smile, no matter how awkward this day was for Charles, he wanted Raven to enjoy herself. “Erik will win it for you, Raven!” Charles declared, as he looked up towards Erik. Erik jokingly raised his arms and tensed his muscles like a body builder would and laughed. Harold and George now looked angry, “HA I doubt it’ll even get close to mine” Harold uttered, making sure that the whole group, including Erik, heard. George agreed and they both shared a laugh at how embarrassed Erik was going to be. 

Erik made his way over and wasted no time in striking the pad with the hammer. Just as Charles expected, the bell rang, indicating that Erik had reached the top and won the main prize. Charles, Charles’s mother, Raven and William all cheered as Raven hugged Erik and retrieved the prize. Harold and George looked mortified and shared a look that could only mean trouble. Harold was embarrassed but would never admit it, and they quietly vowed to get revenge. “It’s bad enough having to be seen in public with them…” Harold whispered to George. George hummed in agreement, as they stepped backwards, trying to make it look like they weren’t part of the group.

For a couple of hours after that, things were pleasant, they had made their way around the indoor exhibits, the group was so stretched out though, that Charles and Erik were together at the front, Charles’s mother, Raven and William in the middle, and Harold and George nearly one exhibit behind, although they clearly had no interest in the animals and looked for the closest bench every time they moved on. 

They reached the indoor part of the Tarsier exhibit and Erik pointed at the closest one. “Look it’s you!” He got Charles’s attention, who was pretending to be offended. “Although I think your eyes are more adorable, especially when you want something.” Erik whispered into his ear from behind, causing Charles to turn his head and whisper back. “Well I really want you to kiss me” he said as he brandished his best puppy dog eyes. “How can I say no?” Erik chuckled as he kissed the parts of Charles’s neck that he could reach from his position behind him, Charles’s back was against Erik’s chest so when he pushed his head back to meet Erik’s eyes, he also got a kiss on the lips. The woman next to them was grinning at them when they looked away from each other, causing both of them to blush. “You two make a lovely couple” She said with the huge grin still in place. They both thanked her and now wore the same grin on their faces. Even Harold and George huffing and sending them disgusted looks while leaving the area didn’t wipe it off their faces.

They came to the end of the indoor exhibits and they all squinted as they exited the building into the bright sunlight. “We should get some lunch.” Charles’s mother announced. They made their way over to the benches that surrounded a large canopy, which had various food stalls inside. Due to all the benches being taken, they decided to sit on the grass area beside the huge pond. There was a discussion about what everybody wanted to eat, and it was decided that Charles and his mother would go and get the food. 

They weren’t even in the canopy yet when Erik spotted Harold nudging George. Out of the corner of his eye he could see that they were both talking to each other under their breaths. Raven and William were oblivious as they were deep in conversation and facing away from the others, with their legs kicking in the water. When Erik turned his head to look at Harold and George, they glared back at him, Harold opened his mouth, but closed it again when Erik raised his eyebrows while wearing an amused expression, daring him to say something. They went back to their secret conversation then, with a renewed enthusiasm. A few minutes later, they both stood up at the same time and hovered on the same spot they had been sat. They weren’t too close to Erik, but he was still uncomfortable with the situation, he stood up too moved away from them, looking out across the pond. He could hear them moving behind him but wasn’t particularly concerned. 

“We’re back!” Charles announced joyfully, Erik turned towards the sound of his voice at the same time that Harold and George appeared in front of him. They were facing away from him but were blocking his view of Charles. At that exact moment, Raven had stood to greet her returning brother and mother. 

Everything happened very fast, Harold had taken a slight step back into Erik, at the same time that George had ‘coincidentally’ decided to take his jacket off, effectively blocking the view of all the others. As Harold stepped back, Erik stepped to the side, they obviously had not realised that Erik had turned around, as they had planned to push him into the pond while he was not looking, to embarrass him by saying that he had slipped. However, that was not how events unravelled. At the exact moment that Harold stepped back and Erik stepped sideways, Raven had stepped in the way. Harold collided with her and she went flying backwards into the pond. There was a collective gasp as Raven disappeared under the water. Her mother flung herself forwards at the same time that Charles grabbed her arm. Charles pulled her back and looked like he was going to head towards the water himself. William had not seen what had happened and was turning to see what was going on when they all began to shout for help. Without even thinking, Erik dived into the water. Raven could swim but she was panicking, so she had been thrashing her legs and arms, causing her to slowly sink. Erik grabbed onto her waist and swam back up to the surface. 

They were met with sighs and shouts of relief. Erik hauled Raven back onto dry land and she was enveloped by her mother and Charles. William held out a hand to help Erik out of the water and as soon as he back on his feet, he was also subjected to a hug. This one was all Charles, who buried his face into Erik’s neck. “I’m soaking, Charles.” Erik stated the obvious. “Don’t care.” Charles whispered in response, tightening his hold. 

“HE PUSHED RAVEN INTO THE WATER!” Harold was pointing his finger directly at Erik. Charles spun round ready to defend Erik, he darted towards the man, but was gently held back by Erik’s strong arm wrapping around his stomach. Erik held him in place as he tried to make a full sentence. “No… I… Charles, I… Didn’t… Charles?” Erik suddenly looked panicked, and thought that Charles had been just trying to get away from him, rather than trying to get at Harold. Charles placed his hand over the hand that Erik had on his stomach, rubbing circles with his thumb, effectively letting Erik know that he knew exactly what had happened. Charles leant back into Erik’s chest, giving himself the courage to confront his step-father.

“This was you.” Charles was so angry but also calm at the same time, making him seem even more livid. There was silence for a few seconds, then unexpectedly, Charles’s mother stepped forward and slapped Harold across the face. While they had taken measures to block Charles’s view, she had approached from a different angle and had seen the whole thing, it didn’t take a genius to work out what the intention had been. There was another silence now, but this one was more of the stunned variety. Harold looked the most shocked as he raised his hand to his face, covering the red mark. “This is the final straw, Harold.” Charles’s mother stated in a way that made it clear that there was no chance of an argument. He opened his mouth to respond anyway, but was beaten to it. “I’ve been watching you all morning, how you’ve been treating my son and Erik, and now you’ve hurt Raven too. I won’t stand for it anymore. I want nothing more to do with you.” Charles and Erik looked on in stunned silence, neither of them had realised that anybody else had picked up on the way Harold and George had been treating them, they certainly weren’t expecting this.

As Charles’s mother turned to walk away from the stunned man, he went to grab her arm to stop her. Before he could manage this though, he was shoved back by William, who had been silently watching. William hadn’t seen what had happened but he knew his brothers. “Go.” William stated with authority, he may be the youngest but he was by the far the biggest of the brothers. Knowing he had no other option, Harold huffed and stalked away, closely followed by a confused looking George. 

While Charles was making a huge fuss over Erik, drying his hair with a fleece, Raven and her mother were repeatedly thanking him. He sat down and dragged Charles down with him, so that he was sat in-between his legs, it was an attempt to make him stop mothering him as much as desire to wrap his arms around him. While they all ate, talked and laughed, it was obvious that the mood had changed, everyone seemed happier and calmer. Erik couldn’t help but sit and look on in awe at the family, realising that he was now a part of it, he subconsciously tightened his hold on Charles, as he placed a kiss on the top of his head. 

They decided it would be best to return back to Charles’s flat. Erik was still wet and none of them were particularly bothered about staying, knowing they could return another day. They all piled into Erik’s car, there was only just enough room for Raven’s ridiculously large teddy. Charles turned up the radio and Erik could only laugh when they all began to sing along, all much happier than they had been that morning.


	17. Enticement

In the following week, Charles’s mother had bought a house a few streets away and Raven had moved in with her. Erik and Charles had helped them move in and both had admitted to each other that they were glad that they now had Charles’s flat to themselves again. Erik had only been back to his own flat twice during the week, both times to pick James up for work.

In fact right now, Erik was in Charles’s bedroom, lying on his back on Charles’s bed with his head propped up on the pillows. He was silently watching Charles, who was sat at his desk, writing an assignment. He had been writing this assignment now for 2 and a half hours, and nothing Erik could say or do was getting Charles’s full attention. Charles had explained that it was better for him to finish it as soon as possible, “then I can devote all of my attention to keeping you entertained” were Charles’s words. Erik had pouted and relented, releasing Charles’s waist and watching as he got dressed and set up his laptop.

After another half an hour of nothing, Erik decided to go make lunch for them both, he had told Charles what he was doing but had only received a hum in reply. He re-entered the room with a bottle of coca cola for Charles, a glass of water for himself, and a plate of sandwiches, which was the only thing he could make due to the complete lack of food in Charles’s kitchen. He placed the plate, glass of water and bottle of coca cola next to Charles. He lingered behind Charles, reading what the man was writing, and knew that he would never cease to be amazed at the genius that was Charles Xavier.

Charles didn’t react to the food at all, in fact it had been nearly 3 hours now since he had said an actual word. Erik began to run his fingers through Charles’s hair, gently pulling the longer parts, not enough to hurt, just enough to attract Charles’s attention. Charles was being stubborn though and was making a point of not reacting, although he hadn’t realised that Erik could see his slight smirk in the reflection of the laptop screen. That was enough to encourage Erik.

“You need to eat, Charles.” Erik stated as he sat in the armchair next to Charles, facing him. “Busy.” Charles deadpanned, not looking away from the screen. Now Erik was taking this as a challenge, he WAS going to get Charles’s attention. He ate one of the sandwiches and placed the plate back on the desk as he leaned back in the chair, watching Charles’s face intently. 

“Hmmm, it’s really hot in here, don’t you think? Must be all the gears in your brain turning.” Erik said in the most obvious fake innocent voice he could muster, and made a point of very slowly unbuttoning the buttons on his white shirt, without looking away from Charles. Erik heard and saw Charles breath in heavily, and when the shirt hit the floor, Erik was sure that he had saw Charles physically stop his eyes from wandering, causing him to twitch. 

Erik took that as a small victory but it was not enough, he sat for a few more minutes, thinking of what to do next. He reached forward for his glass of water, and brought it up to his mouth slowly. He knew Charles could see him in his peripheral vision, so he made a show of ‘accidently’ pouring water all over his trousers. “Oh no! I’m going to have to take these off now!” The fake innocent voice was back again. He remained seated as he slowly undid his belt, still watching Charles, the moment the belt was undone, Charles’s fingered paused on the keyboard. Erik saw that Charles was trying incredibly hard to control his breathing, he began to open and close his hands, trying to pretend that he had stopped to stretch them. He was fooling nobody, as Erik lifted his hips to remove his trousers, Charles stared at his laptop screen, took in a very deep breath and scrolled up the screen to read through what he had already written, knowing that his brain was completely and utterly distracted at this point.

Charles was also taking this as a challenge, he was determined to ignore Erik for as long as possible, although at this point he couldn’t think of any good reason to do so, other than bragging rights. Erik was leaning back in his chair and Charles could feel his eyes on him, Charles could feel the tingling in his stomach that was always there when Erik looked at him with that intensity. 

Erik knew that Charles was close to cracking, he hadn’t written a single word in ten minutes, and he could see the other man watching him through the reflection in his laptop screen when he thought Erik was not looking. Erik was almost completely hard at this point. He reached for the glass of water again and repeated what he had done earlier, this time spilling the water all other his boxer shorts. “Oh no, not again, looks like I’m just going to have to sit here with no clothes on, oh well.” That fake innocence was almost enough to send Charles over the edge, as he was also completely hard, but had been trying to prevent Erik from noticing, needless to say, his attempts had been fruitless and Erik was fully aware. 

Erik stood and removed his boxer shorts very slowly, he was stood less that a step away from Charles. Charles’s remaining resolve was completely failing, whatever reason had caused him to start this competition in the first place had completely slipped his mind. Erik sat back down again, and put his hands behind his head, interlacing his own fingers.

“Oh look at that, I’m completely naked, too bad you’re busy.” Erik’s voice was dripping with arousal and had gone even deeper than usual. 

Now, Charles’s hands were gripping the edge of the desk, his knuckles were turning white and he was breathing heavily, but he was still staring at the screen. The moment he saw Erik’s hand proceed towards his erection he lost it completely. 

He turned abruptly, his eyes showing how aroused he was. The second their eyes met, Erik grinned that gorgeous huge smile and Charles was completely helpless. Charles’s eyes began to wonder and he dropped to his knees in front of Erik. Just as he was about to move forwards, Charles’s eyes met Erik’s.

“Erik I need you inside of me”… “please”. Erik was sat like a Greek god, leaning backwards in his chair, wearing only a pair of black socks. The words that came out of Charles’s mouth made his erection twitch. It was something he wanted to so badly. 

“Please Erik” Charles was moaning as he looked up at him with puppy dog eyes. He wore the look of complete innocence, but Erik knew Charles was far from innocent, and it was confirmed when his tongue lightly licked along Erik’s length. Erik moaned loudly and couldn’t remain still any longer.

“Clothes off” Erik’s voice was more of a groan, but the words came out with complete authority. Charles loved it was Erik showed his dominance, and was more than happy to comply. Charles clothes were off before Erik even stood up. Erik’s hands were quickly on Charles’s waist, and Erik walked him backwards towards to bed.

“On your hands and knees” Erik whispered into Charles’s ear as he nibbled gently, releasing his hold so that Charles could climb onto the bed. Charles missed the contact instantly, but was rewarded for his compliance with the full length of Erik’s body against his back. Erik pulled Charles’s head back and nibbled at his neck, reaching around Charles to gently stroke his erection. 

“Are you sure about this, Charles?” Erik wanted to make sure that Charles hadn’t just been lost in the moment. Charles let out a long whining noise as Erik’s hand continued its stroking motion. “I want to hear you say it, Charles.” Erik was teasing now but he really did want to hear it. 

“Yes. Just, please, Erik”. 

Erik traced the freckles down Charles’s back and wasted no time, he used one finger at first and made sure that Charles was completely comfortable before he added more. It took a while at first but the time Charles took to adjust shortened with the addition of every finger. After 4, Erik knew that Charles was completely ready. He returned to his original position and whispered “I love you” into Charles’s ear as he entered him. At first he didn’t move, but when he saw that Charles looked calm, he started to set a slow pace. He found Charles’s erection again and matched the pace of their bodies, they kept this pace for a while as Erik made sure that Charles was enjoying it. Charles’s flung his head backwards involuntarily and Erik grabbed his hair, keeping him in that position. 

Erik was slowly increasing his pace and made sure to match the pace with his hand, he knew that he was getting close and quickened his hand even more. Charles began to moan very loudly and then started to continuously moan Erik’s name, his eyes were screwed shut and his knuckled were white against the bed sheets. Erik couldn’t take his eyes off of Charles, he would give up everything to stay in this moment. He was getting close too and couldn’t control the quickening of his pace. They both reached climax at the same time, Erik buried his face into the side of Charles’s neck and came inside Charles, moaning loudly, just as this happened, Charles shouted Erik’s name loudly, and Erik felt a wetness against his fingers, he continued the motion of his hand until he knew that Charles was completely through it and then they both collapsed.

Erik rolled onto his back and Charles lay half on top of him on his front, with his head now buried in the crook of Erik’s neck. 

“I love you too, Erik.”

Erik was still trying to get his breathing under control, he placed his hand on the back of Charles’s head and gently ran his fingers over his scalp, the motion sending them both to sleep.


	18. Embarrassment In Aisle 4

A few hours later Charles woke up with his face pressed into the side of Erik’s neck. Erik had been awake for about 20 minutes already and was playing tetris on his phone, he didn’t dare move in case he disturbed Charles from his peaceful sleep. Charles suddenly lifted his arm so that his hand was on Erik’s chest and turned his head slightly so that he could see. As soon as Erik realised that Charles was awake he put his phone down and began to delicately draw patterns on his back with his fingers. Charles hummed in approval but made no attempt to move.

“How are you feeling?” Erik enquired, almost completely sure that Charles would be feeling some discomfort.

“Pretty amazing… erm, maybe a bit sore.” Erik was reassured by Charles’s calm tone that he was fine, but still felt a bit guilty that it was Charles that had to deal with the pain.

“We really need a shower.” Erik could feel the stickiness of his hand and other body parts. 

Charles made a whining noise and nuzzled Erik’s neck. Not to be deterred, Erik lifted Charles’s arm off his chest and slowly shifted sideways, Charles lifted his head so that Erik’s other arm was free but made no other attempt to move. Erik was beginning to worry but was momentarily relieved when Charles slowly rolled over onto his back. Erik sat for a few seconds watching the steady rise and fall of Charles’s chest, wondering how somebody so perfect could have chosen him. Charles had his eyes closed but he could sense that Erik was staring and he couldn’t stop the huge grin that appeared on his face. Erik chuckled and got up off the bed, getting rid of his socks in the process. He went round to Charles side of the bed and pulled on his arm. Amazingly, Charles didn’t protest, and let Erik slowly drag him out of bed. Erik took his hand and made sure he walked Charles very slowly to the shower.

Once they were inside, Erik pulled Charles’s back against his chest, turned the water on and wrapped his arms around him. “I think I’m going to have a limp today” Erik was glad to hear the humour in Charles’s voice and buried his face into his hair as he rubbed circles into Charles’s stomach with his thumb. Erik then took a sponge and began to slowly wash Charles, who was certainly not going to protest to all the attention he was getting. 

“Are you up for going shopping soon? You really have no food.” Erik would be fine with going to the shop for Charles, but it would be so much more fun with him there.  
“Of course, I really am fine Erik, it was, well it was beyond perfect” As Charles said this, he turned on the spot to face Erik, pulling him down into a long, passionate kiss, in an attempt to stop Erik from constantly worrying about him.

“That’s because you were, and are perfect.” Erik replied as he turned the water off and gestured Charles to open the shower door. They dried off and got changed before making their way into the kitchen to assess to extent of the emptiness of Charles’s kitchen.

“So basically I need everything” Charles chuckled as Erik sat at the kitchen table drinking his cup of tea.

“Told you.” Charles stuck his tongue out, making Erik smile. 

-

As they got out of Erik’s car, Erik noticed that Charles was most definitely trying to hide a limp. “Should I get one of the trolleys with the seats in?” Erik joked and dodged Charles’s arm as he tried to swat at him. Erik grabbed the biggest trolley possible and jumped when Charles suddenly appeared in front of him.

“Don’t move!” Charles whispered in an urgent voice as he gripped Erik’s arms. Erik was immediately in protective mode and swung around to see what the danger was, Charles tried to stop Erik but it was too late. 

Erik could see Raven and Charles’s mother, along with two women who were roughly the same age as her, who Erik recognised from photographs as being Charles’s aunties, and also his cousin Leah, who was roughly the same age as Raven. They were getting out of a car, only a few metres from where Charles and Erik were stood. 

At first Erik was confused, why was Charles hiding from them? Then it occurred to him. The limp. Right then, Erik couldn’t think of anything funnier, he started laughing and turned back to Charles in time to see his face change to mortified dread. Erik was honestly going to suggest they went to another shop when he heard Raven shouting their names. His laughter must have got their attention. Realising there was nothing he could do, he decided to just go with it. 

Raven and Leah came running over to Charles and Erik. Raven hugged Charles, causing Erik to move out of the way as Charles was rooted to the spot. Leah hugged Charles too and looked questioningly at Raven while pointing her head at Erik when she thought that he wasn’t looking. “Erik” Raven giggled as she informed Leah. 

“Oooooo, so you’re the famous Erik, you’re even hotter than I’d imagined from all the stories!” Now it was Charles’s turn to laugh at Erik’s embarrassment. 

When the other’s reached the group there were more hugs and introductions, fortunately for Charles and Erik, Raven had already informed them all about their relationship.

“You better be looking after my nephew!” One of Charles’s aunties, Dawn, said to Erik in a joking manner. 

“Of course I am” Erik grinned back and put his hand on Charles’s lower back.

Charles could hear the amusement in Erik’s voice and squinted at him suspiciously, daring him to say anything. Erik just grinned back, pretending to be oblivious. “It’ll be fine, just walk slowly” Erik whispered into Charles’s ear while the others were occupied.

As they started to walk, Erik grabbed the trolley and Charles walked slowly with Raven and Leah at the back of the group.

He spent the first few aisles hearing all about how happy Charles’s mother had been since Harold was gone, and how the trip to get her things from the house had been. Erik wasn’t even asking Charles what food he wanted, he had been in Charles’s kitchen enough to know exactly what he liked and Erik ended up cooking most of the time anyway. 

Raven and Leah appeared next to them suddenly, raving about some food they ‘needed’. “Charles, back us up here.” They both turned around, expecting Charles to have followed them, but of course he was still making his way towards them.

“Are you ok, Charles?” Charles’s mother sounded genuinely concerned. Erik had to look away from the group and concentrate hard on his breathing to stop himself from laughing.  
“Yes, I’m fine” Charles sounded sure but his mother was not convinced.

“You’re walking all funny, have you hurt your leg?” Now Charles’s aunty was involved and Erik had to close his eyes and concentrate even harder on his breathing, he should probably help Charles but at this point, it was all too amusing.

“Errrm, actually yes I did bang my knee this morning.” Charles didn’t sound convincing but it was obviously good enough for the three women who began to fuss over him, insisting that he get it looked at by a doctor.

When Erik opened his eyes, Raven was looking at him with an amused look on her face, she was practically beaming and Erik knew that she wasn’t going to let Charles forget this for a long time. 

“Good night?” Raven giggled.

Erik just grinned and carried on walking, sure that he wouldn’t be able to hold in laughter at another concerned comment off Charles’s mother or Charles reassuring them that his knee was fine.

They managed to get round the rest of the shop with minimal embarrassing comments. Charles had decided it would be quicker if he and Erik went to get their shopping separately so they walked the rest of the shop on their own. 

“I am so embarrassed.” Charles whined as soon as they had left the others.

Erik couldn’t even offer him any words of wisdom, he knew he’d start laughing. He just took Charles’s hand and gently rubbed circles into it with his thumb as they walked. 

After they had paid, they were making their way through the car park when they heard Raven shouting them again.

They turned and saw the whole group making their way towards them.

“Charles, your limp is pretty bad, you should go to a doctor.” Charles’s mother stated.

“I’m fine.” Charles tried to reassure her.

“It doesn’t look like it, get in my car, I’ll drive you if it’ll be easier”. Charles’s mother was just trying to be helpful but Charles was finding the whole situation mortifying. Not taking no for an answer, Charles’s mother took the shopping bags from Charles and began to usher him towards her car. They only got a few steps when Charles rooted himself to the spot. 

“Mother, stop!” Charles shouted. His mother looked shocked at first but the look quickly turned to concern. 

“I know you hurt hospitals Charles, but you’ve had so many problems with your legs over the years, this could cause major problems, please, just come to the doctors.” Charles’s mother now looked extremely concerned and Charles felt bad that he had lied and caused this.

“Mum, my legs are fine” Charles tried one last time to reassure her.

“Charles.” His mother looked pleadingly.

From nowhere Charles heard Raven giggling, when he turned his head to see her he could see that she had been laughing for a while, she had actual tears running down her face.

“Mum, seriously, think about it, his legs are fine.” Charles’s Mum looked confused but her grip on Charles’s arm hadn’t relented and she obviously didn’t understand.

Charles was looking pleadingly at Raven, trying to mentally send her the message to keep her mouth shut but subtlety was never his sister strong suit.

“Well when a man and man love each other very much, they go to bed and one of them wakes up with a limp the next day.” Raven said this all while grinning at Charles.

Charles was mortified, but also slightly amused at the look of recognition on his mother’s face as she understand. He looked towards Erik expecting him to be equally as embarrassed, but was met with a wide grin and bad attempts at hiding laughter.

“Oh, erm, sorry!” Charles’s mother was obviously also embarrassed and this made the entire group, with the exception of Charles and his mother, roar with laughter. Charles turned and hid his face in Erik’s chest, Erik wrapped his arms around him but Charles could feel the vibrations of Erik’s laugher.

“I think we need to go.” Erik informed them, feeling that it was time to put Charles out of his misery.

They also shouted their goodbyes, Charles’s muffled by Erik’s shirt as he did not want to make eye contact with any of them. Erik began to rub his back and informed them that they had gone.

They made their way back to their car and as soon as they were both sat down they made eye contact and burst into fits of laughter.

“I can’t believe that just happened, Raven is going to tell this story at every family gathering. Forever.”

This made Erik laugh even more, making Charles jokingly pout.

“Hate you right now” Charles was still pouting.

“Awwww, I Love you, Charles” Erik smiled as he started to drive.

He knew Charles wouldn’t be able to last more than a minute without saying it back.

Charles’s “Love you, too” came precisely 14 seconds later, although he was still putting on a pout.


End file.
